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Dolorian - When All The Laughter Has Gone review



Reviewer:
9.0

61 users:
8.48
Band: Dolorian
Album: When All The Laughter Has Gone
Release date: 1999


01. Desolated Colours
02. My Weary Eyes
03. A Part Of Darkness
04. When All Laughter Has Gone
05. Collapsed
06. Fields
07. With Scorn / Perish

Dolorian is a band coming from the cold and sunless Finland moving in doom/black soundscapes and being one of the most innovative acts in this genre having their very own twisted, desperate, cold identity. The hopeless title of their debut album, "When All the Laughter Has Gone," along with its grey to black cover with the expressionless figure with a cold stare prepare you for what will follow, the cold touch of Death caressing your skin, the grey silence dancing macabre in front of your very eyes as the doleful guitar riffing and guitar chords, the pulsating nocturnal rhythm section, the twisted desperate keyboard melodies and the unearthly FX accompany the eerie screams of A. Haapapuro that seems to be living the bleak esoteric lyrics screaming from the core of his soul where black orchids of pain blossom darkening his inner horizon.

A bitter taste of winter, desolation and emotional frost you cherish as the album starts to play and "Desolated Colors" paint on the portrait of your bleeding soul with black colors of the heart; the guitars range from razorblade dreary guitar riffing to soft tormented guitar chords harmonizing wonderfully with the deathlike tranquility of the keyboard melodies and FX paving the way for the singer's bleak interpretation to darken even more the grey horizon. The atmosphere-evoking inspired razorblade guitar riffing lets the album flow with "My Weary Eyes" continuing "When All the Laughter Has Gone" in the vein of "Desolated Colors" with the rhythm section lending volume to the composition as the guitars (riffing or chords) accompany Haapapuro's descriptive interpretation that whether he whispers or screams sounds so expressive and? dying.

The serene keyboard melodies that slowly turn to nightmares open the following composition, "A Part of Darkness," leaving you paralyzed in the frost as the voices from within echo once more through Haapapuro's interpretation accompanied by the ensemble of shadows evoking a misty grey atmosphere through the guitars, the keyboard melodies and the raging at times, rhythmic at others drumming leading to the title-track, "When All the Laughter Has Gone." The guitars in perfect entwine with the keyboard melodies kill all hope and laughter seems to be so far away, a false illusion; the atmosphere is so serene but at the same time so unearthly, so dreary, so bleak like a nightmare without end in times "when all the laughter has gone." "Collapsed," my personal favorite of the album, follows and its twisted keyboard melodies overrun your heart and soul piercing you so deep inside with Happapuro singing the signs of a "collapsed" dark new era; a wonderful composition filled with calm moments where keyboards reign supreme and emotional outbursts with inspired guitar riffing and Haapapuro in ecstasy.

"Fields" lets the album flow in nocturnal fear and beauty with the morbid keyboard melodies evoking a nightmarish atmosphere and Haapapuro's screams in combination with the guitar riffing making the overall atmosphere more intense and emotionally fortified, the guitar chords painting the soundscape with bleak colors and the rhythm section holding tight the composition. "When All the Laughter Has Gone" reaches the end with "With Scorn/Perish" in which Haapapuro's oblivious screams harmonize wonderfully with the razorblade bleak guitar rifffing, the fading guitar chords and the synth-born suffocating atmosphere leaving you dying in the mist and cold as shadows rise with the repetitive lengthy ending with the guitars and the keyboards bringing forth memories of times "when all the laughter has gone"?

Dolorian is a band with personal sound and heavy atmosphere. If you can bear the burden of listening to "When All the Laughter Has Gone" and cherish deeper bleak emotions buy it?





Written on 02.07.2005 by "It is myself I have never met, whose face is pasted on the underside of my mind."


Comments

Comments: 2   [ 1 ignored ]   Visited by: 65 users
20.08.2006 - 03:29
Rating: 10
Passenger
Lost To Apathy
I like your review because you trasmit the feeling of the album very well.

This is definetly great.
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You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it ~ Mean Streets
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25.03.2013 - 08:37
Rating: 8
In Bone Factory

Nice Album, Great Review
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The End Is Nigh ...
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