Rating: 8.0

Country: Russia

Release Date: 2007

Record Label: Solitude Productions

Track list:
1. One of the Winter Days
2. December
3. Requiem
4. Condemned to be Silent
5. Rain
6. On The Edge Of The Earth
7. Paths Of Doom
8. Sunset

Total playing time: 53:01

Band Website: Revelations of Rain

Revelations of Rain - Marble Shades of Despair

Remizov Ilya - bass, vocal, solo guitar, drums programming
Muromskaya Olesya - rhythm guitar, solo guitar, keys, vocal

Aside from having some excellent literature and an alphabet practically made for emoticons ( (' §¥') ), Russia apparently has a host of high quality death/doom bands to whom I was until the time of writing this oblivious. Revelations of Rain lean towards the more sentimental, melodic side of the spectrum occupied by bands like Swallow the Sun, Novembers Doom and Mourning Beloveth, except these two have the chops necessary to breathe relevance into a tired genre.

Intensely romanticist in nature and rife with gothic (in the classical sense) inflections, Marble Shades of Despair is calming and warm, with long stretches of ethereally writhing leads that seem to express longing rather than disaffection; hope rather than utter despair. Angst and pain are not the only feelings that can be explored through the medium of music, and doom metal's not just for disaffected aspies, so good on Revelations of Rain. The synth occasionally indulges in pomp, with your usual organ/string/choral patches, bells, and the occasional undercurrent of a humid electronic texture (which I favor for not trying to be anything other than a keyboard sound), but it never imposes upon the compositional element of naked sparseness from which the album derives most of its intimate appeal.

Due to the fact they play an extremely broad style of music, Revelations of Rain allow themselves a lot of space within which to flirt with a wide spectrum of other genres, while still maintaining a cohesive, consistent whole. For instance, an angular, sort of jazzy piano lead emerges at 3:25 and forward in the song "Condemned To Be Silent," that staccato helicopter blade riff two minutes into the song "December" sounds like something Sodom could write under the influence of copious amounts of depressants, while the some of the tremolo picking and throaty rasping near the end of the album hints at black metal. Much of Marble Shades of Depair is surprisingly narrative in nature, with songs ending interstates away from where they started. The album's errant linearity makes it quite an exhaustive listen near the final couple songs, especially considering its exponential lack of structural tension, but it's what ultimately separates it from the current crop of melodic death/doom bands and makes its resolution all the more satisfying.

The mix is crystal clear and the guitar tone's magnificently timbral, yet the album never feels overproduced. The bass is extremely prominent -- not the typical doom metal oppressive wall of sound kind of prominent, but almost groovy at times, complete with slapping, which, juxtaposed with the occasional harpsichord synth, establishes an almost neobaroque air of intricacy in form despite the album's otherwise relatively simple compositions. Thankfully, Ilya's typical bassy growls are buried under the riffs. Anyone who keeps up with my reviews have probably noticed I don't give a shit about production, but in this case it's a perfect match for the music.

Overall, this is what insomnia-curing pap like recent Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride releases should strive to be.

January 30th, 2008