Solstice

New Dark Age (Misanthropy)
by Scott Hefflon

With so much mind-boggling black metal and a few notable powermetal bands, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of their more somber, melancholy sibling, doom. Solstice are as dark and morbid as any of the lot, they’re just slower flowing. New Dark Age plods like a fatally-wounded dinosaur, weeping its plight to darkened skies, passing luscious landscapes, seeing little past the blood in its eyes. Interspersed are acoustic dalliances, similar to “Embryo” and “Orchid” (Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality – sorry, couldn’t think of any top 40 hits to reference). Chanting monks, guitars screaming in the distance, mournful laments, and guitars that lethargically drip despair and quiet animosity like strychnine-laced molasses.
(PO Box 9 Hadleigh Suffolk IP7 5AU England)