Interesting new gothic/doom band
Tom Z | USA | 08/07/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Long songs, some guy who sounds like Johan Edlund (Tiamat) during the clean parts and the guy from My Dying Bride during the more extreme parts. Wispy almost ghost like female vocals are apparent most of the time. Uses many synths, keyboards and acoutics to convey its funeral dirge sound. Obviously influenced greatly by My Dying Bride. Basically what I'm saying is this is essentially your normal Doom/gothic metal crossover heard many, many times before. Draconian don't reinvent the genre or really even do anything that hasn't been done before. They just take a sound that many have failed miserably to create and do a very good job with it. Recombining the elements of all the greats to create a familar, yet original sound. In doing so they join the ranks of My Dying Bride, Katatonia, Paradise Lost, Tiamat and ...How Like a Winter as one of the best doom metal bands. This is an impressive debut and hopely they will be a bit more creative in the future. My one complaint is the lyrics, which get a little too melodramatic and weepy for my tastes. Tolerable though. I recommend this to any fan of gothic or doom metal on the harder side of the genres."
Too much influence, not enough originality
mysanthropyk_overlord | USA | 12/06/2004
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Draconian's debut on Napalm Records had potential, but they show too much of their influences and not enough of their own creativity. Combine this with a female vocalist that's nothing more than eye candy and stupid satanic lyrics that feature the same woefully overdone weepy doom dying-rose-romance antics and anti-Christian propaganda, and you start to think to yourself, "maybe I'll just put My Dying Bride back on." The band sounds like a cross between My Dying Bride, Tristania, and Opeth. They open the disc with a nearly thirteen-minute doom metal overture, called "The Cry of Silence" (no doubt influenced by a My Dying Bride song that isn't much shorter and has a strikingly similar name, maybe?), going into the Opeth/Dark Tranquillity-influenced "Silent Winter." The latter was the first I'd heard of Draconian, and it didn't do anything for me. The best song is "The Amaranth," which is ruined by the raucous, poorly-executed male growling. The girl sings a lot of it, although as I said she's not really that good.
If you want doom, buy My Dying Bride or In the Woods instead. If you want gothic, buy Tristania or How Like A Winter instead. if you want melodeath, buy Opeth instead. This band could be good if they'd drop the stupid cliche satan crap (their next album is supposedly going to be a concept album about, you guessed it, Satan) and concentrate on making original songs with above-average musicianship. Instead, they come off as little more than an amateurish gallery of influence."
Pretty addicting...
Nicholas P. Zaworski | Minneapolis | 01/10/2006
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Yes, they don't do anything that's never been done before. O.k., I agree. But what they do, they do it well.
Some obvious comparisons would be Katatonia and some My Dying Bride. Who in this style of metal wasn't??? It's unfair to hold that against trying out this band's work which is very good.
This album grew on me. It took a while but with a few more listenings, the hypnotic atmosphere slowly took over my brain and now I hear this album in my head all day long. I have not taken this one out of rotation since it came out.
You can go for a relaxing walk while listening. You can rip down the freeway. You can work out to it. It's good day or night. This album will OWN YOUR ASS!!!"
Track Listings (8) - Disc #1