Growing From Ashes...

The Fateful Hour - All We Leave Behind (2015)

We last heard from The Fateful Hour with their album An Everlasting Silence towards the end of 2013 (you can find our review for that one here).  Now they're back with this full-bodied set of seven songs, running at over an hour's worth of doom and sorrow between them.
Opening track "The Face of Transcendence" takes time to clearly establish the melodic grounding of the band's style before launching the heavy bass rumbles, and the careful balance of elements continues in strong form from there to the end.  The expected trappings of melodic doom are given an extra shot of depression, with the keyboards providing delicate filigree over clean vocals singing of self-doubt and mortality.
Though they give the building of atmosphere plenty of time in which to grow, when they throw themselves into hard rhythms and driving riffs, they show a power biding its time for maximum impact.  Use of counter-part with vocals of drastically different timbres adds a further sense of size and depth to the tracks, and the group shows an excellent cohesion in uniting their instruments.  They also bring a sense of genuine emotion to the dramatic singing, something which too many bands in this style fall a bit flat with when it comes time to execute.
With poetic track titles, professional luster, impressive range, and a great sense of rhythmic punctuation for the sweeping tones, The Fateful Hour have assembled a damn respectable sophomore album.  On top of that, they seem to still be pushing into ways of expanding their sound and style, which has me already looking forward to their third album, though I fully expect that they'll take their time crafting it.  Until then, soak in the rich arrangements of this one, and if you haven't heard their first album, get that fixed as well.
~ Gabriel

For Fans Of;    Bell Witch, Jess and the Ancient Ones, Blackwater Park-era Opeth, Pallbearer, Thergothon

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The Fateful Hour - What Remains Unseen (320 kbps)

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To Listen Quietly...

The Fateful Hour - An Everlasting Silence (2013)

It's been a while since I've come across a melodic doom album that really managed to hook me by the ears, but The Fateful Hour's new release provided me with a refreshing dip back into the side of doom that relies more on developing their tunes through shifting pieces and counter-points, and less on megalithic slabs of riffing.  That's not to say that The Fateful Hour aren't heavy; on the contrary, they've got some impressively weighty bass presence serving as the bedrock for much of their material here.  But there's also a fluidity to their music, in the sense that they never really feel tied down to a piece of the song past the point where its utility has been effectively established.  Instead, the music has a persistent sense of the unexpected, thanks to the deep bag of musical tricks from which they pull to assemble each song.  There might be a quick piano flourish here, a sudden drop into near-solo bass for some atmospheric embellishment, an abrupt use of contrasting vocal styles, or... well, you get the picture.
Best of all, the band is able to string together all these parts into something that's tight and effective in the final product, managing an organic (though rapid-fire) shifting from moment to moment.  While trying to think back over even a single song from An Everlasting Silence and recall every last piece of it is a daunting challenge, when it's in the flow, it all fits together in a way that just seems natural.  The result of all this is an album that demands more than a few listens to really dig past the surface, with considerable bounty waiting in the depths for those willing to take the time to journey down.
~ Gabriel

For Fans Of;    Baroness, Opeth (Blackwater Park era), Have A Nice Life, Ulver, Lake Of Blood

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The Fateful Hour - Crumbling Pillars (320 kbps)

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