Dolorian
Voidwards

Five years go by, if you don't count the split with Shining, and once again everything seems at a standstill. There are no experiments or changes of course, no striking novelties. The formula is the same, the usual... Failing. Almost as if trying to create a unique and unmistakable style. In reality, Dolorian's music is not at all for the masses, it doesn't aim to be a reference point or to astonish with mastery and skill. It is an end in itself. Outside of any predetermined scheme, making comparisons is useless, even if necessary. The influences of Lycia are evident, as well as from black-doom bands, but we're not there yet with definitions. The pain of solitude, of being different, of being unique and unadaptable once again allows these 3 destroyers of light to engulf everything hungry for life in darkness.

My review might be repetitive just as the third album is repetitive. It opens with an intro that pretends to take off for all its 5 minutes: "Dual – Void - Trident". We are at the exaltation of silence, which slowly disappears and fades through dark sounds that brush against each other in the darkness. "In The Locus of Bone" continues linked to the first track like a river flowing into a lake... The sonic richness expands and the tension grows. There is room for abysses of hatred and suffering that transform whispers into deep growls and arpeggios into doom riffs that crush from the inside, without ever appearing so evident. "Co-il-lusion" slows us down in a moment of slight sounds that, as always, prepare us for the intense "Ivory Artery". The speed, compression, fullness, and richness of the instruments increase, pushing more and more towards the fibrillation of the chorus, in which Haapapuro's most desperate screaming is unleashed, like an echo in the emptiness described in the track's lyrics. "The Flow Of Seething Visions" is the surprise, the only true novelty compared to previous albums. It is all based on acoustic guitar and the minimalist ambiance of the keyboardist. Nothing simpler, purer, or freer. To be listened to in silence and with eyes closed. Arpeggios, echoes, arabesques, and almost Spanish-style plucking... Yet it does not project us at all out of the dark atmosphere into which we have plunged and through which 10,000 eyes look at us without being seen...

And as if after a rejuvenating hibernation, sleepily and with the lethargy of someone who hasn't moved for years, "The One Whose Name Has No End" breaks the dreams and drags us back into reality... And through enormous effort, everything drags on as slowly as possible (10 and a half minutes!) transforming slowly again from whispers to growling and from arpeggios to riffs on the edge of suffocation. Another NOT short keyboard-only interlude, "The Absolute Halo Is Awakening", and this time there's the most intense piece that recalls Numb Lava and My Weary Eyes. The riffs are granitic and more akin to doom, but the desolation of the atmosphere is underscored by the relentless keyboard loops that drain every last remaining hope. The final crescendo really hurts a lot and the third interlude, "The Fire Which Burns Not", serves to catch our breath, to survive and prepare for the final laceration:

"Raja Naga - Rising". Another 10 minutes of slow redundancy of very sad notes on the edge of listenable. The heart lacerated continues to die, even though it has already tried several times. Space for the last cries, but hope denigrates us again with slow reprises that only serve to prolong the torment of continuing to live while suffering.