Draconian - A Rose For The Apocalypse (2011/2020)

Draconian has always had a special flair to it. It has a very depressing and dark feel to it throughout the songs, but it always has those very special moments of pure, unfiltered metal. They always like to sing about death and misery and doom, yet they always manage to keep some moments nice and serene. With this album, they tone everything up a little bit to make what was originally good now incredible.

Probably the best part about Draconian is how well the singer does his thing. An incredible moment in "The Quiet Storm" is the first verse sung by the male voice, and it is nothing less than pure. No high-pitched squealing of the voice, no really weird and disgusting low growling, just incredible screaming. And throughout the entire album, they don't try and squander the lyrical sound with invading guitar riffs so you don't know what to focus on, you can just let the singing fill you with emotion.

Then there is the female vocals. It blends perfectly well with the male voice. Normally, she is the one singing during any "depressing" parts, such as the beginning of "The Quiet Storm". She has her moment throughout every song and some are more memorable than others, but she still is pretty skilled and is almost always complemented by some nice acoustic strumming.

Speaking of the actual music, it doesn't disappoint at all, either. In the beginning of " The End of the Robe" you have a nice metal riff going that turns into unabashed headbanging. "The Drowning Age" has the same effect, just throwing you straight into some crazy metal and not wasting any time. There are some nice varied music elements as well, such as a peaceful and harmonic distorted part in the intro of "Deadlight", and then comes the best song off the album featuring incredible female vocals, incredible male vocals, some acoustic strumming, and some good ol' doom metal. That song is "The Death of Hours". It perfectly symbolizes the album's whole, having every element in one eight minute song.

And then comes actual music quality. There is one thing I would have to complain about and that is that the guitar, while lovely to listen to, is significantly simple. Johan Ericson is a great guitarist, but in this album there is no real depth to it, always playing the same overall type, which is just chord progression. He never gets to really show off some skill, but that isn't to say that the guitar playing is bad, because its not. It's good...no, in fact it's great. There could just be more of a dynamic to it and more of it. Probably the best instrument out there is the drums. They have some fast times, they have some very good beats, and they are just all throughout awesome.

Most of the songs are fairly long, allowing you to soak in all the glory of Draconian. If you ever liked Draconian in the past, you should pick this one up. If you never heard of Draconian 'til now, you should pick this one up. If you don't like Draconian at all, then go listen to something else.