Décembre Noir has been a model of classy consistency for four albums now. This German quintet’s long-form doom compositions wend their slow way toward weighty themes of loss and grief, mixing in some death metal tropes and tempos to keep things spry. They’ve been plodding off in pursuit of mournful majesty–or is it majestic mournfulness?–since 2014, and hitting their mark so reliably that there’s been little need to shake things up along the way. They are, in fact, a more stable institution than the AMG writing staff, and I Ferox follow in the footsteps of Huck N’ Roll and Madam X as the third staffer to cover Décembre Noir. The eclectically punctuated Your Sunset | My Sunrise follows 2020’s The Renaissance of Hope, which was… another good album by a band that has done nothing but pump out quality death-inflected doom since arriving on the scene. What to make of a band that always turns in “B-plus” work but doesn’t seem to grow along the way? Is there new territory for Décembre Noir to (slowly) conquer, or should we be grateful if they just keep on doing what they do?
Décembre Noir’s music has always been about loss, but Your Sunset | My Sunrise seems to be about a particular loss. Opening track “Dead End: May” mourns the loss of a father figure in both lyrics and spoken word passages. The sense of sadness that emerges from that track permeates an album that otherwise does little to shake up what the band has done before. The songs alternate between “plodders” and “bangers,” which for practical purposes means there’s a slow-ish mid-tempo number for every fast-ish mid-tempo one. Still, the music is varied and engaging throughout. Melancholy lead lines drive the doom-ier tunes, while pristine but somewhat antiseptic riffs propel the heavier numbers. Your Sunset | My Sunrise hits Décembre Noir’s sweet spot without expanding it–you might detect an unwelcome softening of the band’s sound in places, but overall this is a welcome addition to a quietly impressive canon.
Your Sunset | My Sunrise’s doom-leaning tracks engage more than the death-curious ones. Melancholy numbers like “Dead End: May” and “Your Sunset | My Sunrise” captivate with winding compositions that are driven by solemn lead guitar lines. These songs spin a web around you, trapping you within their somber and stately vibe. The more up-tempo tunes feel wan in comparison, with choruses driven by cloying melodies. Second track “Against the Daylight” personifies this phenomenon with a chorus that aims for “catchy” but lands on “cringe.” It’s fortunate that Your Sunset | My Sunrise leans toward its strengths, because Décembre Noir may have lost their fastball when it comes to delivering on the heavier end of the spectrum.
The tunes that work, work quite well. “Sentimental Giants” and closer “Trivial Heart” showcase Décembre Noir at their best, an act that is capable of digging just a bit deeper under your skin than you might be used to or comfortable with. Their lyrics don’t offer the listener the comfortable distance of genre tropes–a good Decémber Noir song is capable of carrying you to places metal doesn’t typically access. The flip side of that is that when they overreach, it can get a bit corny. The principal source of that overreach on Your Sunset | My Sunrise is the production by Alexander Dietz of Heaven Shall Burn. It’s clean to the point of feeling anodyne in spots; death-leaning tracks like “Sleepwalker (In Yesterday’s Smoke)” shouldn’t feel this neutered.
It’s a universal truth across genres that established bands who’ve lost touch with their muse lean on tepid mid-tempo compositions. That phenomenon rears its head in spots on Your Sunset | My Sunrise. It is by no means a bad album–it’s a good one!–but it does find Décembre Noir repeating what has worked for them in the past. This record may someday wend its way into my heart, but it feels like I’m more likely to go back to the band’s earlier and slightly more vital work. Your Sunset | My Sunrise is more running in place than it is a step backward… but even that is a modest letdown from an act like Décembre Noir.
Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Lifeforce Records
Websites: facebook.com/decembrenoir | decembrenoir.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: October 13, 2023
