ninehertz

Dromos, from London, are wholly committed to funeral doom. No acquiescence to modernisation, no compromise to the more extreme doom that can often be filtered into this sub-genre here. Their debut, released on Dry Cough last year was great, but their return on Failing Light is even better, the full realisation of their ethos.

It has more of the Peaceville death-doom charm than of any more recent interpretation of funeral doom, although perhaps less gothic than that might entail. There are three tracks splitting over three quarters of an hour of music, befitting the requisite pacing.

Patience is required, but then quickly commanded. There’s a grandness immediately present, joined by rotten vocals shrieked into the skies. This music fails if the atmosphere it generates doesn’t engulf your senses, and Dromos not only realise and succeed in doing so, they manage to transport you into their narrative, present in their dimly lit, fog clouded vignette.

It is commonly, by its own nature, melancholic, although there are times where hesitantly optimistic lightness is allowed to shine through the guitars. You hear it on Death is Silence, which feels nice, counterintuitively. It is such mature craftwork for a band so new. The twenty minutes of Sinking are unsurprisingly epic, particularly as it traverses from its hazy, almost psychedelic beginnings to the darker realms as it gets heavier.

There is a real majesty to this album, achieved through its saintly patience, knowing when not to hurry. It brings gravitas to it which would not be achieved if it were even a minute or two shorter. It makes for an excellent and oddly hypnotically alluring album.