Dead Summer Society - Visions From A Thousand Lives ...

Dead Summer Society is the work of one man who goes by the name of Mist. This Italian gent employs the help of some outside musicians but this is mostly his work. This hour-long album is a mixed of genres, mostly of the blackened variety whether it be bleak funeral doom, gothic death doom, black metal or a combination of all three. Most of this album is slow, depressive, and melodic with the use of orchestrations, acoustics, piano, female vocals and the odd outburst of frantic black metal but don't expect too much of that. This album titled 'Visions From A Thousand Lives' tends to plod along aimlessly for the most part but nothing is overly bad in this, it is just none of the songs ever quite get off the ground. There seems to be little spark in the songs and very little in the way of memorable riffs or melodies.

The main problem I have with this nothing is nailed with any real perfection. The riffs are average by-the-numbers death doom while the leads are melodic but again not too memorable and don't seem to add too much to the atmosphere of the pieces. The vocals are a very mixed bag indeed. The female vocals are ordinary but not bad enough to be considered offensive but they are blended in with black metal screams, growls, and spoken word parts so there is no clear direction in the vocal department. The band is professional enough and the production is big, warm and clear so it captures the depressive atmosphere very well and that is really the albums only real saving grace - the atmosphere. The lyrics are poetic but pretty typical of the gothic death doom genre.

While this all seems very negative, there is also nothing really bad about this. The real fault is in the songwriting and the overwhelming lack of highlights. It is a real struggle to find one song that sticks out but perhaps 'Her White Body, From the Coldest Winter' stands out more than most and that is only because the track has a slightly interesting arrangement. Apart from that tune, 'I Met You in Heaven and Hell' is kind of catchy in a bleak kind of way and is short compared to most of the other pieces so it never has a chance to turn dull. I also find the first half of the album to be much stronger than the second half as the album really starts to get plodding and a bit tedious by the time you get to tracks eight and nine. I can't really hate this album but I can't really recommend it either. It is just another album that always seems to want to launch into something brilliant but never does; so not bad but a frustrating goth death doom release....4.5/10.

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