Dolorian

Dolorian, an obscure finnish act part of the italian Avantgarde Music label. Dolorian have always been somewhat of an enigma and this also reflects itself in the music. To classify Dolorian isn't an easy task. The music they produce on their self-titled album is again oppressive as fuck, a trait which also the two other albums share, but perhaps not as much or as clearly present as on this one. Looking at the lyrics and listening to the music require a certain ability to think in abstract forms and to think outside the traditional confinements that the doom or black metal genre generate.

Describing the music of Dolorian is an impossible task due to it's abstract nature. To recommend this simply to anybody would be unwise, because in reality Dolorian haven't got the usual aspects of Heavy Metal that we have all come to love. This is some damn inaccessible metal and yet it's not that extreme at all. A band like Wormphlegm is inaccessible due to the extreme nature of it, but such is not the case with Dolorian. The thing with Dolorian is, you won't find any catchy choruses, riffs or melodies. There are no upbeat parts to be found and no singing whatsoever (there are vocals however). And yet words cannot describe just how awesome this is. Like on When All Laughter Has Gone they play a slow, dark and evil type of doom metal with mystifying keyboards; the blackish screams that were present on their debut have been replaced by haunting whispers, giving the music an oppressive sound that is unrivalled. Dolorian wave psychedelic soundscapes with complex and avantgarde song structures and slight ambient touches while never forgetting the heaviness. The result is a deranged and psychotic piece of music that has got the most evil vibe going on and will leave you empty, alone and inhuman.

Now when I use a word like “dull” you might get the impression that I’m not really much of a fan of ambient music. Well, let me just clear that doubt and tell you that is not the case.

Anyway, the real problem here is that the songs don’t have any emotions and are just flat to a point where it gets irritating. The other problem is that the same thing just keeps going on and on and on and never stops. Yet another problem is that the material is mundane to the genre and in this particular case it’s so monotonous that the whole album is like the background score of a movie. The songs compliment each other but at the same time can also be used as substitutes; after two listens I have no idea which is which.

If you a look at the track list, you’ll see that four out of the nine songs are fillers whereas the other five are as long as eight minutes on an average. While the fillers have absolutely zero substance, the actual tracks simply alternate between either generic clean guitar interludes or slightly heavier distorted riffs which again quite simple, basic and don’t requite geniuses to come up with.

However, that’s not all there is. We have a lot of whispers in between which kind of sound like there’s some disturbance in the recording. The lyrics aren’t impressive either except for not more than a couple of lines here and there.

All in all, it is the kind of music you listen to while concentrating on something else, not something you actually sit down to listen to.

Even if the album isn't near what I had expected it to be, I'm still amazed. If When All The Laughter Has Gone was a step into a new direction of doom metal, then this is a leap. You could draw similarities to other bands in death/doom, black metal and ambient, but no bands sound even close to this. All in all the music has gone from black/doom to being ambient doom. They have also added a lot of industrial elements to their ambient part of the music. Actually some of the smaller tracks concist only of these ambient and industrial sounds. The atmosphere has become waster, emptier and lonelier. The lyrics no longer have any screams in them. Only truly haunting whispers that blend in perfectly with the rest of the music.

The keyboard now blend in more with the background. They aren't there to be heard, but to be felt as a part of the empty room surrounding the rest of the music. The guitars are both more silent and heavier. The silent areas are there to draw the courage out of you. While the heavy parts then take over and drags you downwards into a murky pool of helplessness. The bright guitar tones have come a step closer to the deeper and darker ones, creating a more uniting feel. A uniting that weaves all the lonesome sorrow together into one depression.
But not all of the music is new. The same somber and empty emotions from When All The Laughter Has Gone is still not just wery much present, they are in greater abundance than ever. The emotions are slightly different though. The frustration in When All The Laughter Has Gone has vanished. Instead it has made room to dig even deeper into the deepest gray and depressing areas of the soul. The journey is entirely on the inside. Deep inside.

A good way of picturing the music is by imagining a little colourless kid wandering a grey world with plenty of dark shadows, but no lights. All around the kid stands huge factories in ruins. There are no one there except this kid. Shadows walk everywhere and the kid can see them. But not feel, smell, hear or truly percieve them in any way. Instead the kid wanders this world alone in it's own silent misery. Yes. This music truly makes you feel little and alone in a cold, mercyless world.
The worst part is the underlying sense of beuty that actually covers the whole album. A beuty that demands that you accept your misery and succumb to it. Only that way can you become strong. There are no room for tears in this misery. Once accepted, the misery becomes a sort of joy. The music silences the torments, and in the end you might find youself smiling as the empty depression that dwells inside as Dolorian plays.

Interpretations of the tracks:
-Grey Rain: opens the album with an ambience made of a low keyboard rumbling in the background, together with industrial sounds that sounds like metal slowly grinding against metal. A bright guitar plays repeating simplistic and echoing notes. Slightly advancing as the track nears the beginning of Blue Unknown. There is no pause between the tracks. They just meld into eachother. There are two lyrics on Grey Rain. One whispered in the foreground. And one preached far into the background where it is nearly impossible to hear. What they both have in common is that they repeat themselves like obsessive thoughts. Thoughts that dwell deep into the subconciousness of the mind.

-Blue Unknown: slowly progresses from the silent ambience of Grey Rain to a heavier, more floating sound. It doesn't take long before the guitars kick in short bursts. From then on they go on slowly, but heavy and steadily. The sound is, as opposed to Grey Rain, rich and very melodic. The industrial noises has vanished except for wretched screams in strategic places. The second clear voice is fone as well, but the whispers haunt on. All in all the music of Blue Unknown sounds like a really though emotion with plenty of dispair in it. The lyrics also speak of a journey. It is a wery hard and lonely journey where you cannot expect any mercy. The journey is through a vortex that drags you down into a blue unknown. This is the most chaotic track on the album. It struggles to get back onto the surface from the vortex while the horrors inside keep dragging you down. This is the feeling of a person curling up into a ball while tossing the head from side to side in his own inner pain, continously dragging himself deeper.

-Hidden/Rising: is the result of the journey of Blue Unknown. It's less rich and slower, but also gloomier and heavier. The music floats emptily around. It's almost like it's aimless. The bright guitars are followed by the keyboard in the background. The heavy guitars range from being depressively harsh, to being minimalistically silent. The whispers come more to the foreground now. Making the words clearer. This effect makes the guitars sound more distant. As the music progresses on it gets more pushing. More encouraging. Actually sounding like there is a hope. The lyrics speak first of inner pain. Then progressing to speaking of the journey that has been. And last the lyrics exaplin the faint hope emerging. Depression is a state that makes you overcome all irrational hopes. All longings and desires are worked away. Left without all of this the depression creates a stronger person. This is the state of mind where a person is able to overcome any challenge because there is none of the needs for an easy way. This is the higher form.

-Cold/Colourless: is even heavier and dreamier than Hidden/Rising. The dark guitars dance together with the bright ones. This, however, is no happy dance. They dance downwards like wawes on a dark sea. Here the keyboards fill out the bright guitars as much as they follow them. Industrial elements are added to the guitars. Just to add to the floating feeling. The music varies between being straightforward to a more chaotic, yet slow, drift. The vocals are mostly whispered as before, but sometimes they go over to being half spoken. With the empty space the music leaves the vocals sound so lonely. And that is fits the lyrics perfectly. The track is about floating alone, without anyone else around. There is alot of melancoly in the song, but also a sort of joy. This is even deeper than Hidden/Rising. Here you don't grow strong from sadness. Here you can find happiness in floating around in your own sorrow. Floating around in your own black liquid. Safe from harm, all alone...

-Nails: floats over from Cold/Colourless and back to the ambient. There are no drums or guitars in this track. Just pure ambience. This isn't a long track. The keyboard creates a metallic sound that floats up and down. In the background there is a lot of crackling noises. It sounds like there are rats running around in the background. The vocals are the same kind as in Grey Rain. One whispered in the foreground and one preached in the background. The lyrics speak of two feelings. One in the foreground that knows that it's cold and lonely in this world. And a subconcious one that tells everybody to stay out. They are not needed. Other people bring only pain. Being alone brings out the cold inside. In either case life just isn't easy.

-Numb Lava: continues over from Nails, but starts with a heavier section than ever before on the album. All in all this is the heaviest of the tracks on Dolorian. The bright and darg guitars meld together to make the riffs sound harsher and more weighty. The music still floats, but mostly the track is too rich with sound to sound empty. The track can musically be compared to floating around on the same oil as in Cold/Colourless. Only this time the oil is on fire, creating an eternal, scorching sea of fire. There are a few breaks in the music where the emptiness and lonelyness shine through. They are still present, but this time there is no joy. This time it's anguish and ravaging inner pain. The lyrics, told by rusty whispers, tells us that we are now nearly back in the same place as When All The Laughter has Gone explored. But this time we're deeper inside. This place in the inner emotions is a hellhole made a labyrint, which is nearly impossible to get out of. To find the way out you have to pay a toll in pain.

-Ambiguous Ambivalence: is the exit of Numb Lava. The track is ambient, but not in the same way as Grey Rain or Nails. This is only industrial sounds. Sounds of machinery working, screeching metal, and waterdrops splashing, echo all around. Numb Lava has washed away so many of the painful emotions that were still left after the higher form in Hidden/Rising. The endurances of hardship has left an emptyness inside which is only filled the innermost of emotions inside. With all the other emotions gone the lonelyness is even stronger than before. The journey is closing in to an end, but still there are little telltale signs that tells us, we're not done yet.

-Seclusion: has only a few guitars in it. The drums are minimalistic as well. If Numb Lava was the heaviest of the tracks, then this is the deepest of them. Mostly the harsh guitars are nowhere to be found, but at times they kick in, as a symbol of the last few struggles. The music is dreamy as before, but there is rarely any keyboards playing. When there is they play sounds like a machine howling, haunting the emptiness around the rest of the music. Even if the struggling harsh guitars kick in at times the journey drifts on towards a brighter part. The brighter part can only be described as hard, yet joyful. Depressing, but strengthening. The track is a tale of seperation between what others percieve as normal, and what you feel to be the best for you. It seperates the normal and foolish way of thinking, and the rational, but emotionless way. And the only way to do this is to split with your inner self. After enduring all these hardships it all stands clearly. Once the depression is conquered and mastered, it removes the unnecessary feelings that cloud the mind. If there was a higher being before then this is the supreme form.

-Faces: is only a whisper compared to the otyher tracks on the album. Bright tingling noises floats dimply around the ambient new landscape. The machinelike howls aren't gone, but now they sound calm and soothed. The soundscape is as wast as ever, but this time there is a calm over it. It's a quiet and empty calm. As if everything inside now relaxes and floats away. All the cares are gone. Having lived in a painful life of horrid agony, this emptyness is a blessing. After all the torment the album has travelled through, this is the revard. Once you sit down and listen to this track slowly fade away, you really can feel a relieved sigh inside. Don't be scared if you find yourself smiling.