Before The Rain - "... One Day Less"

[wasted years]

[BeforeTheRain] - ...One Day Less (2007)


'...One Day Less' is the first full length of the portuguese Doom Death band [BeforeTheRain]. It comes after one mCD and something like ten years of dedication to the genre. The time taken has paid off: this album brings to light an astonishingly talented band. [BeforeTheRain] weave a soft and subtle poetic music. A sensitivity that is all embodied in the warm voice of Carlos D'Agua .

On '...One Day Less', the tracks are long, the words come slowly, with solemnity. The melody is built note by note and scarcely allows itself a step backwards; there are no choruses or gimmicks, always forward, slowly but surely. The structures are clear and simple. Simplicity, a key word for the work of [BeforeTheRain]. Why make it complicated when you have the talent to make it simple?

Quiet arpeggios start the disc: a few notes of guitar signing the intentions of the band: the music will be sad and romantic. A deep Death growl opens the track 'You ... My Ruin'. The guitars shut up, then chime out short notes accompanying a clear, almost spoken voice. The orchestra gathers it’s forces and says it’s pain without pathos, with restraint. The singer varies his registers, the Death vocals are parsimonious; they scan the story more than they lead it. This will be true throughout the album.

'Paragraph' is another very good song. It’s a recitative; the pace of reading or narration suits the range of Carlos D'Agua’s voice particularly well. Something like a confession in the small of your ear. The violin that makes its discreet appearance in this song amplifies the almost secret nature of the moment.

'Frameless' is overwhelming and glorious at the same time ; the anger of the injured man. "This igneous urge emerge from where sins, where overwhelming freedom turns to an immense prison." So say the lyrics...Romantic, I tell you.

I could have pointed out every single track of '...One day Less' as they all show the exceptional capacity of the band to write delicate and tragic Doom Death songs. There is no bombastic darkness, no traces of black bitterness, it is all warm and velvety and sad. The fragile vibrations underlying the music of [BeforeTheRain] make it very endearing. Romantic, solemn, and devoid of any gothic blisters. It is just deeply human and simply beautiful.

Reviewed on ??-11-2008 by Bertrand Marchal

in: http://www.doom-metal.com/reviews.php?r=1025