The Scarlet Tapestry

Turns out there's a lot of sad sounding death doom metal. More than you might think and going to places beyond the poster boys in My Dying Bride, early Katatonia, October Tide, and Saturnus. Thorns of the Carrion were a much more obscure American band that lasted only about ten years. The only remotely recognizable name in the lineup is Ash Thomas, a veteran drummer in the Ohio metal scene. Their first album, The Gardens of Dead Winter, was a remaster and re-release of a demo with some bonus tracks tacked on which makes their "sophomore" The Scarlet Tapestry seem closer to an actual debut. This is made somewhat bittersweet by the fact that this album never got released on a proper label, only self-released in limited quantities on CD. But for those who can listen to it, The Scarlet Tapestry is a very strong death doom metal album.

Thorns of the Carrion take quite a few queues from early My Dying Bride, so much that I wonder if The Gardens of Dead Winter is actually some lost and forgotten demo by the British band. The Scarlet Tapestry though takes those influences and makes them into something that's actually more of their own thing. Unlike most of its contemporaries, it isn't downtuned which makes it sound more airy and majestic sounding while still maintain the melancholic feel that their genre is known for having. Combined with the mixture of clean and harsh vocals and the heavy emphasis on keyboards, this album has a very solemn wintry atmosphere.

It's a very long album, kinda unnecessarily so with an 8 minute long non-metal outro and about and additional ten combined minutes with the double non-metal interlude in "Beautiful Thorns to Caress the Girl" and "By the Brilliance of Candlelight". However, the other long tracks are easily the biggest highlights and are some very powerful death doom metal songs. "Tears for the Raven Muse" has a few unique flairs of its own especially toward the start of the song with its warlike overture melody on the keys played over some sampled sounds of a medieval sword battle before cutting to a much slower funeral doom-esque section. "The Drifting Snow" is even gloomier with it using more typical death doom styled riffs while "Memories Forever Unadorned", the 18 minute long elephant in the room, is a very effective emotional climax to the album.

The album really should've ended there. The acoustic closer "The Ashen Embrace" doesn't add anything more to the album. But otherwise, The Scarlet Tapestry has some really amazing moments and is an album that should be looked up if you're a fan of death doom.