Review: “Through Endless Darkness” by Solemnity

Formed back in 2016 by Amit Luther (Orchestration, Piano, Guitar) and Dan Benton (Vocals, Guitars) as creators, looking to formulate something sonically diverse.  Blurring the edges of Melodic Death Metal, Solemnity was born when they were joined by Dan Dean on bass and the trio take influence from Insomnium, Be’lakor and In Mourning, they have been spent four years crafting “Through Endless Darkness”. It’s a 25 minute labour of love which combines the crushing weight and ferocity of Death Metal with the dynamics and grandeur of Orchestral music.

A somber opening to “Through Endless Darkness” comes in the form of instrumental “Invierno“. A tone setting piece of Melodic Death Metal that gently builds atmosphere and sets up the powerful “Pray For The Light” perfectly as one forms the natural extension of the other. Benton’s low guttural growls are the polar opposite to some of the Orchestral work that lifts the energy and gives the music cinematic quality, creating the raw edge that you often find with Black Metal in this sound. There are also progressive touches when it comes to a close which then bleed into the introduction of “So It Ends“. Those ferocious vocals are the darkest element on the majority of these songs, the grandeur of the music and it’s complexity overshadowing them for the most part. There are powerful rhythmic batterings from the kit which are part of the dynamic and some synth touches in this cut lift it into territory of its own. Whether the drums are programmed or not is hard to tell, they are certainly metronomically precise and well fitting, perhaps part of the bigger picture brains thought process. The layering is second to none, each segment has been painstakingly worked into the overall sound. Upon reflection on this collection of songs it’s clear that they are not accented by the Orchestration in the same way that some Symphonic Death Metal or Deathcore bands are. Instead Solemnity have created a far more of a hybrid animal, as much orchestral as Metal and “Prelude To…” is a fine example of that. A somber overture that builds into a piece of virtuoso guitar work, it has the oura of “Ecstasy of Gold” by Ennio Morricone before a couple of minutes of Thrashier riffs that allow the blast beats of “Our Demise” to appear from the shadows and allow Benton to bring his lungs to bleed with the powerful first verse. A piece of modern Death Metal with a Black Metal heart, the killer drum sound and patterns of this are the relentless rhymic driving force that knows no end. There is a classic Metallica break in this one dada-dada which allows the haunting ebb and flow to build once more and as nuances go, to may go unnoticed for a while due to the oura around a powerful approaching eight minutes track that ends on a haunting piano note. This is a piece of brilliance that defies all the odds stacked against it [9/10]

Track listing

1. Invierno
2. Pray For The Light
3. So It Ends
4. Prelude To…
5. Our Demise

“Through Endless Darkness” by Solemnity is out 5th June and available for pre-order over at bandcamp