The Dying Wonders of the World

Overall, this album is decent, but it doesn't live up to the standards The Duskfall have set for themselves. All of The Duksfall's previous albums had an intense, thrashy and brutal feel, yet they were still very melodic. This one, on the other hand, has pretty much ditched the thrashy, older melodic death metal feel, and thrived more around a post-Clayman In Flames kind of melodic death metal. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of newer melodic death metal, IF it's executed well. I personally love new Soilwork and Dark Tranquillity, among many other bands, and new In Flames is tolerable.

The Duskfall, like many of the bands mentioned earlier, was one of the best in melodic death metal, no question about it. They really had the best of both worlds when it came to "melodic" and "death metal," but on their newest album, The Dying Wonders Of The World, they seem to be losing the feel they were so well known for. Musically, this is a good album. If this wasn't by The Duskfall, I would enjoy it thoroughly. But since The Duskfall has built up such a strong reputation for themselves, this album is a dissapointment.

So now to the actual music. The first track opens up with the typical Duskfall feel. Nice and melodic, but still maintaining the thrashy and brutal qualities The Duskfall is known for. It continues on like this until the chorus, when everything goes to hell. Blasting chord progressions on the guitars, boring drums, subtle keyboard melodies and generally uninspiring and boring vocals. This goes on for a short time until the verse comes back in, nice and brutal again, until the next chorus. Then, a short interlude featuring a drum solo. I find it very strange that they wanted to put drum solos in a lot of the songs on this album. Oskar Karlsson is by no means an amazing drummer, yet The Duskfall decided they wanted to show off whatever skills he has at every possible interlude, which is a bad idea. The drum solos are usually boring and out-of-nowhere, and don't fit in with the song at all. Most of them sound exactly the same as the fills he does anyway, so I see no point to it. Then, a guitar solo! The Duskfall has always had some of the best guitar solos in their songs, and this one is nothing short of that. But alas, it's ruined quickly by a repeat of the chorus.

The album goes on for 9 tracks of generally the same formula. The verses and guitar solos tend to maintain the brutality of previous The Duskfall albums, and the choruses feature blasting chords, boring vocals and extremely subtle melodies. Most of the tracks have some sort of interlude, which sometimes fits in, but usually doesn't. The only exception to this is I've Only Got Knives For You, which reeks of metalcore through and through. Not that metalcore is bad, but this is. And yes, that is a FUCKING BREAKDOWN in the middle of The Option And The Poison. Again, not that I don't like breakdowns, but they don't belong in melodic death metal, especially not that of The Duskfall.

So now, an in-depth review of the instruments:
The guitars are decent. By that I mean, they have some really good parts, and some really bad. Almost every song on the album alternates between old The Duskfall feel and pseudo-melodic death metal. Usually the verses and guitar solos (although there are very few), and in rare cases, the interludes have amazing guitar parts, reminiscent of old The Duskfall, which is a good thing. But along with this comes the chordfests in the choruses, which not only sound like shit, but they don't fit with the music AT ALL, and frankly, they're a disgrace to the name The Duskfall. I'll give the guitars an 7/10, because they still manage to keep the old style at least a little bit.

The drums are pretty much expected of Oskar Karlsson. His extremely basic drumming isn't amazing in any sense, but in this case, that isn't a bad thing. What's good about his drumming is that it fits with the music. The main focus of The Duskfall is on their guitars and vocals, and having complex drumming in the background would only detract from that focus. My only complaint about his drumming on this album is the drum solos. Drum solos usually aren't fit for any sort of metal song, especially if they're not that great. Oskar is better off just doing a few cool little fills here and there like he used to, than to pull drum solos out of his ass at every possible place, just because he can. Overall, I'd give the drumming a 9.5/10. Lots of blast beats that are slow enough not to be intrusive, but fast enough to still be brutal, and the extremely basic drumming fits with the music. The only thing bad about the drumming is the solos.

The vocals are pretty much the same story as the guitars. For most of the verses, they keep the same signature style that Kai Jaakkola is known for. However, in some of the choruses, he attempts a higher pitched scream, which doesn't seem to be working out for him. It sounds a little bit more melodic than his normal style, but the boring guitar parts in the background don't do it any justice. In some of the interludes, he attempts a sort of quieter scream, maybe to fit in with the quiet guitars, but it doesn't work. In I've Only Got Knives For You, he demonstrates some of the shittiest clean singing I've heard in a LONG time. To be brutally honest, even Anders Fridén can pull off some better clean singing than this. Kai has definitely lost his touch that he had way back on their song Frailty. Overall, the vocals deserve about an 8/10. For the most part, they sound as good as, if not better than his previous work, but there are times when it all goes to hell.

The bass is practically inaudible most of the time, and the times where it's possible to hear are so scarce, there's really not enough material to give it a rating at all.

Musically, this album is above average. If this was a debut album from an unknown band, I'd easily give it 100%. But because it's The Duskfall, and it was such a disappointment from their previous work, I wouldn't hesitate to give it less than about a 60%. Nontheless, the music is still good, so it gets a solid 78%.