Before The Dawn - My Darkness
Locomotive Music
11 songs (39:42)
Release year: 2003
Before The Dawn, Locomotive Music
Reviewed by Khelek
Archive review

I had not even known of this Finish band's existence until a few weeks ago, but thanks to the requests section of the forum I am becoming familiar with this and other projects started by Tuomas Saukkonen, who plays lead guitar on this album as well as doing the harsh vocals. This debut, while not amazing, certainly shows a young band with talent and potential.

The intro track starts out with a decidedly electronica/gothic atmosphere, elements of which continue throughout the album. The first track, Unbreakable, I found to be mostly forgettable however, with repetitive guitars and not enough energy to actually get things moving. Luckily Seraphim begins with a stronger set of riffs and a nice melodic lead into the clean vocals of Panu Willman, which are not bad but take a bit to grow on me. The chorus is also melodic and memorable; overall a solid song that kept my attention and really got the album moving. The title track uses this same formula, aggressive hooks and harsh vocals from Saukonnen in the verse followed by a memorable chorus with Willman's clean vocals.

Take My Pain reminds me a lot of the band Rapture, which is a good thing in my case. It has a sort of bleak melancholy atmosphere, but still keeps plenty of energy going at the same time. Undone uses similar sounding riffs and melodic leads, but unfortunately lacks the same liveliness. Human Hatred does better with some different sounding vocals to mix things up. Using the harsh and clean vocals at the same time as well as the very catchy, upbeat atmosphere lends this song more of a gothic rock sound as well, also similar to the song Angel.

I like this band's sound; it is very melodic and memorable, if not the most original. Saukkonen's harsh vocals are a bit generic and the clean singing didn’t do much for me at first listen, though it definitely started to grow on me. Nevertheless I wish the vocals were a bit stronger in both the delivery and the production. Before The Dawn have created a decent album for a debut. The guitar work is what stands out to me as the best part, with the crushing riffs and melodic leads taking center stage for most of the album. Overall a solid first effort from Before The Dawn and I look forward to hearing more of their discography.

Killing Songs :
Seraphim, My Darkness, Take My Pain, Angel, Human Hatred
Khelek quoted 74 / 100
Other albums by Before The Dawn that we have reviewed:
Before The Dawn - The Ghost reviewed by Khelek and quoted 79 / 100
Before The Dawn - 4:17 am reviewed by Khelek and quoted 78 / 100
0 readers voted
Average:
 0
You did not vote yet.
Vote now

There are 1 replies to this review. Last one on Tue Apr 06, 2010 12:50 am
View and Post comments