There’s a group of Finnish melodeath bands that put out a run of absolutely fantastic albums in the early days of AMG: Amorphis, Barren Earth, InsOmnium Gatherum, and of course Before the Dawn. This was a hugely formative time for my music taste, and all those records stick with me over a decade later. Before the Dawn’s brilliant Deathstar Rising landed at the uptempo, melodic end of the set. Huge, hooky choruses tempered by that edge of Finnish moroseness pressed all the right buttons for me. Unfortunately, it was immediately followed by turbulence, the dangerously average and ironically titled Rise of the Phoenix, and the dissolution of the band. Back in the present, they return with Stormbringers. Will this rebirth be more successful?
Stormbringers certainly marks a return to the Deathstar Rising era. The choruses are so big and singalong they’re practically pop. Before the Dawn’s trademark pretty, fluid guitar leads land here in full force. On Rise of the Phoenix, these did a lot of heavy lifting covering for the lack of vocal chorus hooks. Stormbringers has a couple of wonderful moments where we get choruses with both (e.g. “Destroyer”). I’m also a huge fan of the regular use of clean/harsh vocal harmonies. If they’ve taken hints from any of their melodeath contemporaries, it’s Amorphis’ Queen of Time era pop-death, and I mean that as a high compliment. Both “Reveries” and “Downhearted” employ some Amorphisms to great effect.
My biggest issue with Stormbringers is the vocals. Brilliant original clean vocalist Lars Eikind returned and put out a single with the band a couple of years ago. Come this record he’s sadly gone again, replaced with Paavo Laapotti. Laapotti was a finalist on The Voice of Finland, and he has a bunch of great metal performances on the show (it is the Finnish version after all!). Indeed, he has great performances on this record (“Destroyer,” “Divided”). And yet on quite a few of the songs (“Chaos Star,” “Reveries,” “Chains, “Downhearted”), his clean voice is missing all its resonance and depth in its higher registers. It sounds very hard and brittle and nasally. If I didn’t know it was the same guy on The Voice, I would have sworn it wasn’t. I’m confused and I genuinely don’t know what’s gone wrong here. This could be a production or a direction issue or even the writing. But every time it happens, it knocks me right out of the song.
That aside, the performances here are every bit as good as you’d expect. Laapotti has a solid, meaty growl. Returning guitarist Juho Räihä handles all lead guitar work and drops one memorable melody after another. Band leader Tuomas Saukkonen takes over drums, and while rarely flashy, there’s a driving energy that’s perfect for these songs. And bassist Pyry Hanski gets some bass fills and bridges I really enjoy (“Destroyer,” “Chaos Star”). There’s a few keyboard elements by an unknown musician I love as well: the piano intro to “Divided” and Amorphisy middle of “The Dark,” and the poppy synths on “Downhearted.”
The vocals are really the only significant issue with Stormbringers. There’s a couple of slightly uninspiring harsh vocal verses on the back half of the album (“Divided,” “The Dark”), which are barely worth mentioning. At its best, with tracks like the fiery “Destroyer,” poppy “Downhearted,” and doomy closer “Weight,” it stands level with Deathstar Rising in the upper echelons of very-melodic death metal. It’s great to see Before the Dawn back in action and this is an incredibly promising return. Just… sort out whatever went wrong with the vocals, please?
Rating: Good
DR: Who knows | Format Reviewed: Stream
Label: Napalm Records
Websites: beforethedawn.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/beforethedawn
Releases Worldwide: June 30th, 2023
