Room Thirteen album review of ‘The Failing Light', August 2005
[View the article on Room Thirteen's website here]
[Room Thirteen]
"This Is Just The Beginning"
Season's End have had a tornado tear through their lives since the original release of 'The Failing Light'. Since then, they've headlined the second stage at Bloodstock 2004 and opened Thirteenth Day 2005. They're also making a leap onto the main stage at Bloodstock for 2005 and the change is well deserved. They might not be the leaders of the pack on the main stage, but with 'The Failing Light' re-packaged and re-released, you can guarantee that they will not remain the opening act for long. Frequent tours and a complete dedication to the music they create has provided them with the kind of solid fan base many bands lack. You can be sure that 'The Failing Light' will be snapped up by legions of metal fans with a taste for female vocals.
Beginning with 'Touch', the album sounds decidedly colder than the original release. The warmness seems to have gone but it's left a slick sheen of professionalism in its place. Becki Clark's voice soars as gracefully as ever, perhaps propelled further into the soul of the listener having a more chilling background to make it seem all the more angelic.
'Ghost In My Emotion' is intense and packed full of spiralling guitar work alongside melodic synths and the feeling of a great, blanketing sadness. The underlying bones of this album have not changed at all. If you thought that gothic metal was melancholic and somewhat depressing, you'd be right, but that doesn't stop the music Season's End creates blossoming into a breath-taking display of what British metal could be about if only it tried. 'One Sadness' is everything you'd expect- tinged with sadness, lengthy, but at all times beautiful.
'Nothing After All' brings David Stanton's vocals into the picture- a rare sound, but a welcome one. This is possibly the second best song on the album after 'Ghost In My Emotion' when considered for a single. It's a more direct, brutal track that slides underneath the heavy drumming. Twisting, turning and at all times changing, the song does not drag as the running time might suggest it does.
Final track on 'The Failing Light' is 'Celestia', which shows their unwillingness to conform to the typical values of the music genre they're working in. Majestic with the feeling of power being held back, the song again uses male vocals to sit alongside the angelic Becki's stunning voice. This is the kind of vocal work that Lacuna Coil seemed to be attempting with Andrea Ferro, although the Season's End version is far more palatable. With Season's End making themselves known up and down the country for their stunning performances, recognition for such an unusually solid debut album will follow swiftly.
12 out of 13
Philippa McMahon of Room Thirteen
http://www.roomthirteen.com
