SOLITUDE AETURNUS - Downfall CD

Solitude Aeturnus have been one of the biggest names in epic doom metal for quite a while, combining the solid crushing doom metal of Candlemass with more up-tempo music has lead to them gathering up a fan base all of their own. Their history has been pretty much infallible, and Downfall is no exception, consisting of a wide range of some of their fastest material, and some of their most emotional, although there is a noticeable lack of dirge like slow monsters.

Downfall is one of the bands most riff centric albums. Sure, they've always had a lot of interesting riffs on offer, but also tended to have a lot of sections where the guitars were simply heavy backings to Rob Lowe's epic voice. But that rarely happens here, resulting in the songs being less epic, and instead are catchier little numbers. Songs like “Only This (And Nothing More)” aren't quite the same sort of epic affair we're used to, instead is a fairly straight forward deal, catchy and melodic, it's still got a "bigger" sound than most bands, but nothing in comparison to the epic nature other releases. This is the case with most of the album, catchy riffs which, despite being clearly doom, are more melodic doom than epic.