Discouraged’s debut is a miserable, weighty piece of death/doom that seems to exist in a permanent state of November. It’s a lesson in how to make something feel genuinely cold, grey and slightly damp without having to hang your socks on a radiator afterwards. From the lumbering guitars to the cavernous vocals and sombre melodies, everything here seems determined to drag whatever remaining optimism you had out into the garden and bury it in the midst of a thunderstorm.
A Farewell In Stages is built around the idea of separation and the gradual process of saying goodbye, with the album moving through different emotional stages of loss, from insomnia and despair through to emptiness and, ultimately, farewell. Even the artwork reflects this, taking an image from Gustave Doré’s 1866 engraving Naomi and her Daughters-in-Law, which depicts the biblical moment when Naomi’s daughters-in-law must decide whether to leave or remain with her. Discouraged have deliberately cropped the original image to focus only on Orpah walking away, leaving the sense of departure as the key focus. It provides a fitting visual counterpart to an album that explores the drawn-out, painful process of accepting that something (or someone) is no longer going to be there.
What makes the record work is the band’s exceptional sense of atmosphere. Discouraged understand that a good doom record is as much about anticipation as impact. The guitars frequently linger long enough for the tension to become uncomfortable before finally delivering a riff of such magnitude that you’ll be picking your teeth up off the floor.
And, for the slightly more feral among you, never fear! There is plenty of death metal lurking underneath the gloom, too. Rather than allowing the album to become one prolonged exercise in funeral pacing, the band inject enough aggression and variation to keep the material moving. When the guitars become more ferocious, the contrast makes the slower passages even more effective than they already were!
It’s fair to say that Discouraged haven’t quite escaped the enormous shadow cast by their influences. A Farewell In Stages wears its affection for the classic British death/doom sound very openly, and while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with knowing your Paradise Lost from your My Dying Bride, there are occasions when the band’s own identity gets slightly lost somewhere between the riffs.
That said, the execution of this record is really quite impressive. The production gives the guitars plenty of weight without turning the whole thing into an indistinguishable wall of distortion, and there’s a grounded feel to the sound that seems to shun studio trickery and instead focus on the natural heft of the compostions and guitar sounds. In fact, it really sounds like a band playing together naturally rather than a collection of parts that have been painstakingly assembled on a computer.
The best moments come when Discouraged allow their melodies to take centre stage. Beneath all the growling and tectonic guitar movement are some surprisingly memorable musical ideas. Standouts include Insomnia, which sets the tone beautifully with its deceptively restrained opening before the heaviness creeps in, and All Hope Is Gone (I assume the lawsuit from Corey Taylor and co. hasn’t been filed yet) is arguably the album’s emotional high point, balancing crushing doom with a genuine sense of despair. Waves (Dark Is The Sea)deserves a mention for its eerie atmosphere and use of quieter passages, while closer Farewell provides a suitably melancholic conclusion, bringing the album’s themes of loss and separation full circle.
It’s not an album that’s going to radically alter the course of death/doom, and occasionally it can feel slightly over-familiar. But as a debut, A Farewell In Stages demonstrates that Discouraged are more than capable of writing a decent record. They can write riffs, create atmosphere and, most importantly, make misery sound rather magnificent.
This is a bleak, impactful debut that is full to the brim with promise. Discouraged may not have found their completely unique voice yet, but it’s clear from this initial foray that they’re on the right path! Not exactly a cheerful listen…but then, saying goodbye rarely is…
Best Paired with – A fading lantern, a large brandy and a dishevelled black suit.
Reviewed by Bryn.
Discouraged – A Farewell In Stages is out now via fDA Records.
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