
Come hell or high water…
-- Dawn of Solace --
18/02/2020
Stijn Daneels

Album genres:
■ | Doom Metal |
■ | Gothic Metal |
Album artists:
■ | Tuomas Saukkonen | Instruments and vocals |
■ | Mikko Heikkila | Clean vocals |
Review
written by Glenn “Terra Shredder” Van Bockstaele.
Dawn Of
Solace is a Finnish melodic gothic/doom act founded in 2005 and is the solo-project
of Tuomas Saukkonen, from Wolfheart and Before The Dawn fame. In 2006 he
released the Dawn of Solace debut album called “The Darkness.” Although Tuomas
had initial plans to make a second album he decided to kill all his ongoing
projects in 2013 and then formed Wolfheart. Last year, however, he announced he
was working on a sequel to “The Darkness” and now this sequel is finally here!
“Waves” is
Dawn of Solace’s second album and is released through the German record label
Noble Demon, founded last year by veteran Nuclear Blast executive Patrick Walch
and sent to us by our friendly German promoter All Noir. The album is entirely
written and performed by Tuomas himself with the exception for the main vocal
duties which are provided by Mikko
Heikkilä (from Black Sun
Aeon and Kaunis Kuolematon). The
album begins marvelously with “Lead Wings,” a song that, despite of the endless
barrage of powerful riffs still has a sense of vulnerability to it, especially
thanks to Mikko’s slightly melancholic singing and the subtle doom metal layer
underneath it all.
That doom
metal layer is more prominent in the next song, “Ashes,” which starts off with a
grinding main riff and bashing drums before the operatic guitars take
center-stage again backed up with some keyboards. This particular song breathes
a very foreboding atmosphere, like a series of waves that slowly but certainly
gets larger and deadlier and so does this song, gradually building up to an
epic finale! The following track, “Silence” is similar to “Ashes,” with a doom
inspired first part (this time equipped with some slow, well-suited piano tunes),
a bombastic middle part and ending with a minute long soothing piano/drum combo
that goes into “Hiding” (the next track, no pun intended) with its acoustic
guitars and soft vocals that build up towards a lengthy, magnificent guitar
solo.
Then comes
the crunchy “Tuli” song, where the bass-heavy melodies, piano and Finnish
chants give this song quite some splendor and mystery. The next song, “Numb,”
is arguably the most melodic track on the album with several guitar solos and
crystal clear vocals, a true highlight on this release. Then comes “Choice,” a
typical Dawn of Solace song like many other on this album but with more tempo
changes and finally the release ends with “Ghost,” a very atmospheric song with
haunting piano ticks and howling vocals.
Overall,
Dawn of Solace’s second album is an excellent album that was certainly worth
the 14 year long wait. It takes some of doom metal’s ingredients and cranks it
up with soaring guitar work and operatic vocals. If you’re a fan of Tuomas
Saukkonen’s other bands like Wolfheart then we can just as warmly recommend you
his Dawn of Solace. Now fly with those “Lead Wings!”
85/100