You can generally divide Doom bands into one of two categories: the ones that rip off Black Sabbath and the ones that rip off My Dying Bride - les rockers and les miserables. Before The Rain, a new project formed from members of other Portuguese bands such as Sculpture and Lethian Dreams, fits firmly and snugly into the latter slot – you won’t find any Cathedralesque riff-frenzies here. What you do get is some quality Doom Death that is compelling enough to warrant your attention over the course of some quite lengthy tracks – with two over fifteen minutes.

Before The Rain doesn’t go all-out on the crushing sorrow, for the most part retaining a sense of melody that verges on the Prog but never quite touches it. Gentle strumming, clean vocals, that atmospheric Katatonian sound… it’s all present and correct yet despite avoiding originality like the plague, the end result as presented on debut album …One Day Less is curiously palatable. There are little to no keyboards, the music being driven by the guitars and (to a much lesser extent) the vocals, and whilst a bit more technicality in the rhythm section would make the listen even better, it’s perfectly adequate.

The album opens with Wounds Of Rejection, a twelve-minute paean to loneliness that hits all the right epic notes and has a clear rise-and-fall quality to it. Although starting with growls, it soon passes to clean vocals, and the melodies take over completely, later growls only enhancing the experience. There’s a fairly even balance throughout the album between harsh and clean vocals, aside from the all-clean Paragraph, which makes use of those hammy spoken verses that are annoying from the first listen to the last – fortunately, it’s only a three-minute interlude.

You… My Ruin takes a slightly more desperate route in the vocals, the insistent riffing soon giving way to slow drones and growls before returning again for maximum Doomage. Be Mine opens with uncanny Industrial effects before exploding forth into epic Doom, certain to leave newcomers nonplussed and veterans in ecstasy. You could say as much for the album overall – not recommended for beginners unless they’re of an adventurous bent, but those more experienced may well love it, as there’s just enough to keep you listening. A good debut; let’s hope the band can build on it and make an even better follow-up.