Yellow

The Morningside are a Russian melodic doom metal band, with a touch of post-rock and progressive rock, and a noticeable black metal flavor to the vocals.

The first track had a noticeable post-rock influence. The melancholy that was brought out trough the clean instrumentals and lack of vocals was reminiscent of the style. When the very caps came in after the introduction closed, a black metal touch to the vocals stood out. Not a full on shriek, but relatively close to the style of vocals heard in BM. It surprising fits well with the constantly shifting guitar lines and sorrowful instrumentation. The track Out of the Nest presented another element to add to the album's list of tags, as the progressive rock influence can be heard through the drums on this track, and a hint of progressive metal on the guitars at some points on the cut.

Yellow takes you into an atmosphere of its own. The beautiful melodies and vocals are the perfect combination to create a melancholic feel. The album will never drift too much away from the formula as well, never catching you off guard, but not staying too focused to a certain influence or sound to lose the listener's interest. Every member of the band will do something with their instruments to add to the atmosphere, the feeling and emotions, that rush out from the record's track list. The guitars will back down when needed, the drums will kick up in intensity when the climax of the song is reached, and vocals will vary from a harsh delivery to a clean one to support changes in instrumental intensity (take the track Missing Day).

I’ve been listening to The Morningside on and off since their first album. They were very inspired by Katatonia back then, not a bad thing, and I enjoyed their brand of melodic doom metal. They love to let the music do the talking and by that I mean long guitar melodies and harmonies. They could almost be seen as an instrumental band with a few vocals thrown in now and again. I see the guitars as their main ‘vocal’ as they sing and squeal throughout the tracks.

I feel this new album is the accumulation of everything they have been doing in the past. They have refined their sound and tightened up, still making heavy use of melodies but structuring the songs so much better. The album opens with slow somber notes picked out, soon replaced with tremolo picking and subtle background keyboards. The bass on the album is nicely placed, bubbling along sweetly with it’s own melodies here and there. Vocals are introduced in the second song , a decent black metal kind of rasp, but not so harsh you cannot make out the lyrics. As for lyrics, they are a bit odd when read from the booklet but that’s just my view. The tracks continue with some great solos and the pace speeds up a little here and there. You have the partnership of guitars being the second ‘vocalist’ as I like to call them, with the actual singing alongside. ‘Missing Day’ opens with a fantastic riff and continues to churn out the harmonies. Igor Nikitin’s clean vocals are not bad, they bring variety and suit the peaceful parts well.

There is always a nice riff or melody building from the guitars while the rhythm guitar chugs along in the background. The last two tracks meld into one another to produce a spectacular finale. Acoustic guitars are presented that, although are not extraordinary on their own, when combined with the amazing ‘ …Then He Walked’ it makes perfect sense. This ending stopped me in my tracks, it kicks in and has one of the best emotional riffs I’ve heard in a long time. It just repeats but never gets boring. Other elements are slowly brought in like synth, while the main guitar fades leaving you in bits. Beautiful end to a career best album.