Review of Autumnblaze - Perdition Diaries

A reformed act from earlier in the decade, Deutschland's Autumnblaze have gloriously returned with the unpredictable intention of bringing back a sound reflective of the gothic doom that bands like Paradise Lost and Katatonia were doing in the 90's, adding a punchier progressive death aftertaste that will find favor on the palette of old and new school metal fans.

From all that 2009 has had to offer in metal so far, Perdition Diaries is one of the easier albums to listen to, making it a huge challenge to accurately represent in mere two dimensional black and white. The underlying musical simplicity is accessible and familiar, attaining power and meaning through the spectrum of dark emotion the album encompasses. Gloriously directed sections of climatic chord progressions swirl through most of the album, enveloping moments of drum blasting disposition, sensitive sluggishness and head-bouncing rhythms - paced to a purposeful strut - through out.

There is a slight sense of predictability within the strummed movement of many of the songs. The material feels a little overstretched at times and often retains pace and direction for too long, but this can occasionally aid the drama of any rogue twists. You might notice that “Burdermord” and “Neugeburt” initially appear to be completely identical before the former hauls itself through doomier tempos and soothing organ tones, towards an intense finalé, whilst the latter follows a more melodic and choppier ride that is enjoyable, but yet still arrives at a similar ending.

Perdition Diaries' greatest secret is contained with in the three stripped back songs; bare on instrumentation and filled with a cleaner vocal style that contrasts the death screams of those tracks distorted with that era specific guitar tone, designed for those haunting tremolo lines. “Who Are You” and “Empty House” continue to take influence from British doom bands of the 90's, particularly My Dying Bride, crawling bleakly and naked into another set of rather more uniquely pivotal showdowns. Then there is the more optimistic “Ways”, spruced with bright piano, cordially harnessing an easy appeal through it's own chastity.

“Saviour” wraps the album up with an interesting mix of newer In Flames and HIM, tying the knot on a neat little collection of plug-in-and-play winners. Hopefully Autumnblaze will see fit to waste no time with a follow up in the spirit of this record and lineup, because they definitely have more to offer.

Release Details

Autumnblaze

Perdition Diaries

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