Yesterday's Ghosts

Many years ago, when some of my school friends learned that I had never seen The Lion King, they told me that I had never had a real childhood. Apart from being a silly statement (it's The Jungle Book that defines your childhood anyway), that kind of putdown leaves you feeling sad and a little awkward. In the first place, you probably agree with them to some extent, suddenly asking yourself why you never watched the film, but also feeling foolish because you can hardly go and watch it in your mid-teens or early twenties without being laughed at. So you go all quiet for a while and lose a bit of your personality until your friends forget about it, when you can finally be yourself again. And it's the moment between being made foolish and regaining your confidence that Yesterday's Ghosts reminds me of.

Hailing from Macedonia sure hasn't prevented these guys from sounding like Norway's Green Carnation, a comparison which makes itself pretty obvious as soon as Marc Durkee opens up his mouth to sing, since he sounds almost exactly like Kjetil Nordhus, if a touch tired and confused. The rest of the band tread close to Green Carnation's A Blessing in Disguise album, though without the sharper hooks or sense of broad horizons, mostly sticking to a fluid and tranquil gothic doom sound that My Dying Bride or Draconian have produced in their gentler moments. Much of the album sounds weary, as if the band were nearing the end of a journey, smooth slow guitar playing guiding the movements river-like towards the stillness of the sea. Twin guitars wind melodies round fairly simple beats, keeping a constant intensity from passage to passage and song to song, which sometimes makes the album feel dreamy or drifting, which is either to its praise or its detriment depending which kind of music you prefer. There are one or two heavier moments, when the guitars shudder and chug, though these don't impress strongly. On the other hand, there are 'Beyond Repair' and 'The Death of Hope' at the end of the album, which are sparser and gentler; the vocals pick up slightly from their weariness, so that - when paired with the clean guitar of the introduction - these moments give off a Katatonia vibe.

I'm in two minds about whether these traits are positive or negative for Yesterday's Ghosts. Firstly, the gentleness of some of the music, particularly towards the end of the album, means that the listener won't keep their focus throughout the whole experience, since there isn't a powerful sense of drama and nor does the mix give much punch to the instruments. As a 25 minute album (surely this should be an EP?), this is very grave indeed, because losing attention in such a short space of time clearly implies a lack of quality ideas and captivating performances. It's true that there is quite a lull going on inside the album, yet there is also plenty happening just under the surface of the calm mix. The guitar melodies are really gorgeous at moments, probably at their best during the first two songs, which have the pick of riffs too. 'Desolate Chambers' starts to move around the middle of the song, though it doesn't quite maintain the energy of the good ideas to push forward, often returning to sections that fill space instead of actually seeming necessary. I know there are some people who will love the drift and glide that this kind of music produces, but in my opinion, it's not consistently interesting.

What frustrates most from my perspective is that These Winds Are Not Hope have the potential to make a very good gothic doom album and seem to have arrived early at the album stage, instead of taking time to craft the songs or gather a full set of strong numbers. This is a very short album from a new band, so to make it work the quality must be very high and the songs captivating from start to finish. We don't get that here, with too much calmness to create the drama and emotion necessary, especially from the vocals. This band certainly can make some worthwhile material, they just need a little more time.

I mostly review black metal albums or at least something that has to do with that genre such as death metal, avant-garde and sometimes some classic heavy metal from the years of old (aka the 70's and the 80's). As you probably understand though that doesn't mean that I do not listen to almost every metal sub-genre as well. And of course who would say no to some good old gothic and melodic doom metal in the ways of Anathema ? Not me for sure! So this time I'm reviewing something in that vein. The surprisingly short debut of These Winds Are Not Hope a band originating from Macedonia, formed by their guitarist (and drum programmer and keyboardist) Boban Despotovski.

Did I sound too enthusiastic about it? Well, I certainly hope not because the album itself has an abundance of weak spots and blank spaces that need to be filled as soon as possible if this band wants to gain a larger audience and maybe reach a higher status. Starting with the instrumentation and more precisely the guitars, I can't find something negative on the way they are produced because it fits the style a lot. Their sound is thick and full and with the use of reverb they sound even more lively. The riffs however are another story... All of the tracks follow the same motif and the moments in which the guitars are actually refreshing are quite few. The use of clean guitars in the two closing tracks doesn't do that much of a favor to the album either. Of course that does not mean that there are no good riffs in this album at all, however all the good stuff that appeared for some time in the first song, will appear again in all the other tracks in the form of a slight variation. There are many albums which I hail for the use of motifs and variations on certain themes (Throane's debut for example) but here it doesn't work for the better, unfortunately.

If anything, however, the true weak spot here is the rhythm section. The bass is not badly produced or totally useless, but it lacks that thing that I love to hear in bass performances in any kind of album. What's that you ask? Initiative of course! I like to hear bass leads and there are not much here, if there is any. The few extra notes added by the bassist Miroslav Denkovski are not enough to make this stand out. But at least the bass is played by a human as opposed to the drums which are programmed. I have nothing against programmed drums when their use is necessary, for instance when the drum performance is extremely complex or when a project is very personal and the one single artist behind it decides to do it all alone (e.g. Spectral Lore). However, the drum patterns here are not that complex and the band itself is a trio. Not only that but their singer is Canadian. So couldn't you get a guy to play these on record? After all, it is said that These Winds Are Not Hope are a studio band...

Since I mentioned the singer, his work is very good. That's how I imagine a good old school doom metal vocal performance to sound like. There might be a slight hard rock feeling to them but I'm okay with it. You must be aware that this album is quite radio friendly since there are no lengthy tracks or weird time signatures here... The lyrics written by Boban as well do not strike me as unique but they are true to the genre's usual lyrical themes.

All being said, Yesterday's Ghosts is not an awful album, just not my cup of tea. Don't expect it to sound like Type O Negative or Pallbearer if you are into doom. Expect the gothic approach that the band uses and who knows? Maybe you'll like it. After all with only 25 minutes length, you would not lose that much time to just check it out once! These Winds Are Not Hope have a long way to go but it's not like they are totally hopeless. They can evolve into a prominent name if they put the amount of time and effort that is needed into their work. Still though, you should give it a try yourself.

Favorite tracks: 'Beyond Repair'.

50/100.

Some bands fail by trying too much, others by trying too little: These Winds Are Not Hope certainly fall into the latter category. The melodramatic, sentence-long name seems, at least to me, fit more for some horrible deathcore band with lyrics about crying over murdered girlfriends. But no, this Macedonian band recalls the somber melodies of mid-career Katatonia and the clean-sung moments of the Finnish band, Rapture--the main difference being an arid indifference where there should be a wealth of authentically-felt anguish and despair; that's usually the only way to make this style of mopey metal worth a listen.

While MA lists this band as "melodic doom/gothic metal", this is really closer to albums such as "Discouraged Ones" and "Tonight's Decision"; just replace the genuine depressiveness of Katatonia's performance on those releases with a bland, post-breakup sentimentality, and you'll be close to the sound Of These Winds Are Not Hope. The failure of this release has very little to do with technical reasons. While each instrument consistently fulfills its role with a basic level of competence and the vocals are blandly tuneful--far more fit for rock than anything approaching metal--each song is absolutely interchangeable. The melodies have an appropriately sensitive and yearning feel, but never really leave any truly poignant impression on the listener's emotions, in the way that nearly any song from Rapture's excellent first album, Futile, so effectively does.

Beyond simply suggesting an abandonment of this project, I think the best thing that the members of These Winds Are Not Hope can do is have a long night's listen to the truly harrowing masterpieces of depressive rock/metal by Anathema, This Empty Flow and, for a more aggressive example, the German act, Disbelief. In addition to creating more complexly-structured songs, these Macedonians seriously need to learn how to more powerfully convey their apparently melancholy character through stronger melodies and more convincing vocals. Otherwise, the only pain they'll continue to convey is their nonexistent musical identity.