Draconian
The Burning Halo

The "Gothic" genre, as we know, is one of those music streams among the most exploited and teeming with bands. Whether these are more or less valid is a matter that depends more than anything on their ability to revive an already digested and metabolized "recipe", but by adding ingredients that manage to make it even more appealing, if possible, compared to what fans have already heard before.

Thus, alongside what we might call the three fundamental "pillars" of this genre, which correspond to the early Anathema, the middle-period Paradise Lost, and today's My Dying Bride, there have been bands that, more or less, crooked or straight as they may have been, have managed to rework its canons and harmonies. Many (but not all) have succeeded in suggesting something original too, truly original I mean, perhaps even giving it some innovative element, something that is always welcome. And so, in addition to the very sad violins, the surreal and catastrophic sensations of solitude, the lacerating growls, many other small signs have been added over time, marking the stages of musical progress that might seem never-changing to most, but in some ways has managed to preserve its primal spirit, by welding and combining, for example, with the cadences of Doom, or with the lethal and murderous atmospheres of Death.

So, Draconian are a fitting example of how Gothic can be taken as a genre derived but not limiting, made of chiaroscuro, sometimes even of catacombal moods, but always given in a sad and sweet key that only adds charm upon charm to their music.
I'll take just a couple of lines to refute the arguments of those who have written or said that this album represents nothing new or original; that it's nothing but trite and overly familiar, that it's boring and exasperating, etc. etc. These considerations don't interest me: for me, this album is splendid. Not like their second work, "Arcane Rain Feel," of course, which remains their unsurpassed masterpiece to this day. But if it doesn't come close, it's only because this is not really an entirely new album, having in its tracklist three tracks extracted from their first album and remastered (namely "Serenade of Sorrow", "The Morningstar", and "The Gothic Embrace"), plus two covers, respectively "On Sunday They Will Kill The World" by Ekseption and "Forever My Queen" by Pentagram.

Thus, a complete judgment cannot be made, at least on a global level. But, in the new traits that the band has imprinted on the three new tracks, there is undoubtedly the sense of a quite refined class that knows how to be sad in the right way, tragic in the right way and equally obscure. A progression in sounds and songwriting has undoubtedly matured with this new album, and the comparison, useful in this sense, between the old and new songs, turns out to be rather difficult. Perhaps because the early Draconian were more martial and dedicated to Heavy sounds, while today they are more inclined towards a melancholy aura that suits them well.

There are indeed similarities with other bands. The first that comes to mind is with Saturnus, a jewel band dedicated to refined and ethereal Doom/Gothic, but even if the trace is clear, that doesn't mean it's a plagiarism. And songs like "She Dies" or "The Morningstar" stand to demonstrate it.
As is mandatory when listening to this kind of music, one must arm themselves with the right mood, and quite a few listens, but not too many, to appreciate the nuances. But what more could be expected from a band that provides endless anguished and sublimely sad sensations? Actually, it's worth noting that the songs, even while following a fairly linear structure, made of a sad beginning, "suspended in the air" pianos echoing, a fairly feral center and a minimal and sweet end, hit exactly where they intend to.

And me, what can I say? To someone like me, who's now old for these things, listening to these musings always touches the heart. Maybe it goes against objectivity, but oh well. No one is perfect.