Majestic Downfall
The First Abyss Demo
6.1
Formed in Texas during the sweltering heat of August 2006, Majestic Downfall is a one man band that follows in the footsteps of European death/doom heavyweights such as, yep, you guessed it, early Anathema, early Paradise Lost and of course, My Dying Bride. Making no attempt to hide this fact, lone member Jacobo’s mission here is to simply try and rediscover the fire from that magical period of the early 90’s that saw the bands listed above pave the way for countless others over the many years that have followed. While you’re not going to hear anything on this 23 minute, three song ride that hasn’t been done before, and most certainly far better, the songs are well crafted enough and show the strong possibility of promising times ahead.
The strongest of the three songs is opener “A Bird’s Departure”, which leads the way with eight minutes of loping gloom that flirts with some mid-tempo chugs and sees a multitude of dual guitar harmonies give the song a darkened feel of distinguished despair. What impresses me most is that when the guitar harmonies do arise within the work, each track tends to seem dissimilar in approach taking on a distinct life of its own, yet when both are sewn together the result is a wonderful combination of gratifying beauty and dismal dejection. I can’t say enough about dual harmonies that see each guitar go off in slightly separate directions, instead of note on note simplicity that can become redundant if overused. The other two tracks are roughly in the seven minute range, with “In an Ocean of Fears” opening up with more of a driving gait bringing Finland’s Rapture to mind, and there’s a continuance of harmony laced passages including some lightly used keyboard flavoring, while closer “A Tear of Understanding” starts out in more early My Dying Bride fashion and builds into a rumbling n’ chunky verse section forging the way. Jacobo’s vocals are par for the course and rarely waver from the typical low end girth-like roar, but one thing I’d discourage on future recordings is the spoken word moments that can be heard in the demo’s final number. I just don't get the appeal, and I suppose I never will, but I'd much rather hear some cleanly sung passages if done well enough. The production of the recording is fair, though the chunk of the guitars does tend to overpower the rest of the instruments, most notably making the vocals seem a tad low in the mix.
In closing this isn’t a piece of work that I would urge you to get your hands on, but I do encourage fans of the style to head on over to the group’s web page as each song is available for your listening pleasure. And while I can’t necessarily recommend picking this up I can say that I look forward to seeing where this one man force goes from here. The ideas throughout, though having been used and reused for some time now, are portrayed competently enough to keep me interested in the group’s future, yet I would like to see Jacobo try and inject a bit of flavor by adding a bit more personality to the project.
