Lamentations

Because I'm a roundabout music fan, the first and only Solstice C.D. I ever bought was the semi-unofficial version of Lamentations with the black cover art. It's a great album, and despite its Viking cover illustration, the Dutch drummer, the British-Italian guitarist, Lamentations does sum up to be a very British, or North Sea, doom classic. Solstice had a renewal of interest in the mid 00s, but since then nobody really talks about them. Lamentations contains their best material, and is quite eloquent in its narrative of decay, struggle, sadness, falls from grace, the tension between divine forgiveness with strings attached, and mortal life with freedom to fail.

Rain-shower samples, slow repetitive riffs, melodies full of regret and self-recrimination, lyrics same. Reverbed drums, underproduced, always slightly behind the beat. Quite a long playtime too. As a bonus layer to Lamentations, you get British doom, but full of grey skies, dark moors, brackened streams running amber fluids into a grey-green harbour, into a roiling slate sea. Solstice brings vulnerability to their music, and the nature it evolved from pervades Lamentations also. Nature is an instrument here, and man is frail by contrast. Roomer didn't do anything of note after this performance which is a shame because his drumming here is very original, and grimly evocative.

Some of the song titles might lead you to believe My Dying Bride has spawned some ape-ists, but Solstice's doom metal is theirs alone. Both bands do the British gloomy sodden angst thing, but the two styles are pleasingly distinct. You might as well throw Warning into the frame of reference too. The Man Who Lost the Sun, Empty Lies the Oaken Throne, Neither Time Nor Tide, all genre classic tracks, full of slow, maudlin groove, and sinewy guitar lines, and capped by very decent clean vocals. Almost every song on Lamentations has a character, and the stand-out tracks are only a little better than the others; there are no weak moments on Lamentations.

On the downside, the production is decent, but could have been more one way or another; if you took away the heart-breaking emotional timbre, the musical resonance might be a little thin, despite Netherwood's worthy bass playing. Remasters are supposed to rectify this, but in any case you could argue the C.D. from 20 years ago is the correct version, and the way it is, is the way it is.

Of saints and sinners,
none could perceive
The fall from Heaven,
and how we would bleed
Face the adversary,
with rage inside
Nothing can erase,
neither time nor tide

The lyrics are on-point, the riffs hypnotic, the drumming nicely sloppy, the bass audible and warm, the vocals exactly clear enough to be powerful, and to convey uncertainty within that power. Black album cover, with a Viking long-ship. That's all you need in metal, and for doom metal specifically, as on Lamentations.

I am way late to the Solstice party. It wasn’t until recently that I ran into New Dark Age, which felt like the jubilee of stumbling across some free leftover food left in the breakroom at work. Immediately I was hooked and couldn’t understand how I would somehow avoid this band who had been around since I was a babe. Perhaps I was not ready for epic doom as a genre, which was not nearly as dark as I would have wanted circa 2013 when Solstice re-issued their albums on Bandcamp. It is true that I found this sub-genre oldy very grating at first and had to ease into it like I was wading into a pond in late spring. Solstice really blew the doors off that ambivalence I once had like doing a cannonball into the same cold pond instead. I still can’t stand Messiah’s vocals though… maybe someday.

We’re not talking about New Dark Age though, this is Lamentations, a worthy predecessor in my eyes. Man was Solstice really paving the way for bands like Khemmis to sprout up 20 years later, huh? The way they wrote riffs that weaved through a song underneath more unorthodox vocals is special, especially for its time. The tone is very appropriately slick, and the riffs have this snake-like quality to them as they ungulate along; the twin guitarists Richard Walker and John Piras sometimes dueling, sometimes harmonizing. Lee Netherwood underneath it all, tying up the loose ends very subtly. Simon Matravers mourns over top like a newly widowed spouse, victimized by a Viking raid on their small English settlement. His voice is not particularly powerful, though not weak, but it is haunting. The texture on every song is what ties the whole atmosphere together. Lennaert Roomer could be easily lost in the mix, but he has some very notable moments, namely on the bridge section of the Man Who Lost The Sun.

I could easily see someone having a tough time with this album. There is a samey quality to the songwriting on first listen, and they could’ve trimmed some minutes off the runtime. I would implore you to give it a few more tries though since that runtime becomes essential as you replay it. Maybe listen when you’re doing chores or something. The melodies on each song really stick out more each time through and are quite memorable. Eventually I was doing dishes just banging out the silverware singing: Nothing can erase, neither time nor tiiiiidde. Give it a spin, even if you don’t really care for Epic doom, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

If there was ever a poster boy (album?) for records that are unfairly overlooked in favor of their successor, this would be it - or perhaps Come My Fanatics, but that's a story for another time. New Dark Age is certainly more creatively ambitious than this album, being a sort of crossroads between doom, epic heavy metal and maybe even the heavier side of power metal. Lamentations is fairly straightforward by comparison, mostly sticking to the epic doom formula set by bands like Candlemass. But what Lamentations loses in variety it more than makes up for in consistency. It is Solstice's strongest front-to-back album, and the only to truly be all killer no filler.

This album is sometimes described as if the Peaceville Three tried to write heavy/doom metal, but I personally don't see the connection. If anything, this album is like if Sabbath tuned back up and rewrote Sabotage. These solos are straight out of the Iommi playbook, with "Wintermoon Rapture"s in particular sounding like an Iommi cut that never was. The guitar work overall is excellent, with plenty of tight riffs and solos. Even if they mostly stick to the typical doom metal chugs and slower leads, their execution is damn near flawless. "The Man Who Lost the Sun"s solo is probably one of my favorites in all of metal, and considering this band's next album that's no mean feat. This album has the strongest bass performance on a Solstice record, and when it's allowed to shine it really does shine. Moody lines like on "Absolution in Extremis" add to the atmosphere immensely, and their absence on later efforts is certainly missed. The drums are loud and proud, and while maybe not the most technical are very well done regardless. I also like the modest vocals, very hymn like. Sure, they're not as impressive as Messiah's or Lowe's, but they don't need to be.

Maybe that's the real "issue" with this album: it's good. Very little sticks out here as particularly exceptional (or bad) and as such the album kind of goes in one ear and right out the other. A pleasant listen to be sure, but not unforgettable. While the riffing is certainly competent, most are simply good in the moment and only a few ("The Man Who Lost the Sun", the second half of "Neither Time nor Tide", "Wintermoon Rapture") leave a lasting impression. The instrumental "Empty Lies the Oaken Throne" is a good example of this, very pretty but you'll forget it the moment the next track starts. There are some highlights as previously mentioned, they're just not that much brighter than the rest of the admittedly "good" album.

Screw that, this album's great. Lamentations is proof that Solstice could have just been another 90s doom metal band - and a fine one at that - but the band decided to go in a different direction. While this album has mostly been consigned to being a "warm up" of sorts for New Dark Age, I heartily recommend the album to any doom fans or anyone in general curious about what might have been.

Highlights:
"The Man Who Lost the Sun"
"Wintermoon Rapture"

This record is Solstice's debut from 1994, and the sequel of a number of excellent demos. Solstice was one of the earlier epic doom metal-bands in the vein of Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus, yet ridiculously underrated and overlooked. The band is and was lead by the guitarist, main songwriter and somewhat anti rock star Rich Walker, whom does not fear to express himself most hostile to bands like My Dying Bride, Anathema and Cradle Of Filth, of which at least two he has shared band mates.

The music itself can be placed somewhere between Manowar and Candlemass, where epic melodies and choruses intermingles with crushing doom riffing and slow drumming. The riffs are the strongest part of this record, from the initial song "Neither time nor tide" and on, and the bandleader and guitarist Rich Walker manages to write riffs that are very slow yet avoids sluggishness nicely! All songs are more or less great, I can't name one that I don't like, but the highlights for me are "Neither Time Nor Tide", "Only The Strong" and...fuck it; all of them! This is by that mean a very consistent record, indeed!

Although the music itself is just brilliant from beginning to end my only opposition from giving it a full score is, except from knowing that the second album New Dark Age is even better, the vocalist, Paul Matravers, who tends to stick to the low registers of the vocal range i little too much with very few higher notes, which gives the music a somewhat monotonic appearance, but I really can live with that.

A brilliant record from a brilliant band, none the less, which deserves a lot more attention than what has been spread over it!

This British band plays a very unique style of music, which is epic doom metal. Fans of Solitude Aeternus and Candlemass should take note, but I'm fairly sure they already own this album. Basically, these 5 guys from England have created a magnificient album in this genre. Beautiful clean singing by Simon Matravers, great riffing and atmosphere by Rich Walker(the frontman of the band) and by John Piras (yes the same guy who went to Cradle of Filth, don't worry it won't take anything from your kvltness :). The songs are well arranged, and exhort a sort of medieval atmosphere to the listener. The outstanding tracks are: 1.Neither Time nor Tide (try not headbanging to this) with its great doom riffs and vocals that would make Robert Lowe jealous. 2.Only the Strong is the personal favourite here, it is a very romantic yet heavy tune with a fantastic chorus :"Every day another pain, each dawn I die at dusk we pray, empty dreams in midnight clouds, cloaked in doom the darkest shroud" Fans of mid period My Dying Bride should also take note.
3. These Forever Bleak Paths is another excellent song here, this one reminds me of Solitude Aeternus' slower songs.

Overall, if you're into doom metal you must have this. If you're looking for an interesting musical experience pick this one up.