Location: New Jersey
Country: USA
Genre: Gothic doom metal
Full length: Voices beneath the Rubble
Format: Digital album, jewel case CD
Label: Black Lion Records
Release date: June 28, 2024
As a project that released five full-length albums and an EP since 2017, Drift Into Black not only shows resourceful receptivity, but demonstrates a growing talent for presenting musical narratives. By describing their gothic doom metal approach as being negative and jaundiced, you would miss the point being made, that disconsolation masks a desire for something more out of life.
From the raw, mournful debut EP "Shadow People" to the streamlined, finespun full length "Voices beneath the Rubble", Drift Into Black’s refinement hinges on an underemphasized capacity to subtly build established moods. Creating soundscapes for the EP solo, Craig Rossi who founded the project borrowed from The Doors, Black Sabbath, and David Bowie while writing the songs. Their pervading sense of downheartedness was underlined by a sense of renascence and hints of a chance to begin again after massive, all-consuming sorrow.
Hiring musicians along the way, Rossi continued to experiment, with different sounds and atmospheres, articulate lyrics with different verse and vocal patterns, coordinate influences and polish production, finally evolving into "Voices". This was a gradual transformation, indicating the time and effort Rossi invested in finding the direction he was seeking. After the amount of soul searching undertaken to reach this point, the impact of "Voices" is multiplied greatly due to its creepy, unearthly quality.
I didn't find the lyrics at Bandcamp, but if this album is meant to be a continuation of the tale told on their previous release “Earthtorn”, it seems its title implies humanity surviving a global catastrophe, slowly rising from the ashes of a devastated Earth in order to eventually rebuild civilization. The mosaic effectuated by Rossi and the musicians he’s working with is a patchwork of gothic metal (Lacuna Coil), grunge metal (Alice in Chains), symphonic metal, melodic death metal and ambient metal with opera and classical moderately subsumed.
After recording "Voices" for six months in 2023, Drift Into Black spent another two months mixing and mastering in 2024, refining the desired sound and climate for the dual vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, piano, strings, and mechanized effects. In its impressions of the fragments of civilization spread across the globe, the sound they wanted carries considerable weight. Feelings of indecision are accentuated by the uncertainty of how the last survivors will be able to repair and rebuild what's left.
When Drift Into Black works on their next recording, will they attempt to explore this concept? If so, how would they convey this search to the listeners? One of the most profound qualities of "Voices" is its sensibility of unanswered questions. –Dave Wolff
Lineup:
Craig Rossi: Vocals, guitars, keyboards
Paul LaPlaca: Bass, guitars, keyboards
Klemen Markelj: Drums
Guest musicians:
Ben Karas: Strings
Alyxx: Vocals
Track list:
1. The Horns of Despair
2. In Turmoil
3. The Great Machine
4. Voices Beneath the Rubble
5. Last Hope
6. Forever King
7. Blood Storm
8. What’s Left in the Fire
9. Turning of the Tide
10. December
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