Downfall of Gaia – Suffocating in the Swarm of Cranes (2012)

Jumping on the whole Cascadian/hipster Black Metal / Post-Black Metal movement, today we have Metal Blade and one of their latest signings Downfall of Gaia. The German band plays a very well-constructed Black Metal with lush atmospheric elements, but with a very traditional instrumental core. While the band is actually pretty good at what they do, they are still nowhere near as excellent as main competitors Wolves in the Throne Room, and even lesser known bands like Fell Voices, Woman is the Earth, etc.

Opening with the atmospheric “[Vulnus]”, this album quickly delivers the traditional lush guitars of said style of music. The drumming and overall pace of things is very adequate and this song feels crushing, but at the same time filled with melody. The wall of sound created on the first track nicely blends into “Drowning By Wing Beats”, another song that starts with very emphasized drums that are quite good and slowly moves into faster and harsher territories. The vocals are quite fitting for the style, and sometimes it reminded us of the intense delivery of bands like Sun Worship (also from Germany).

The signature distorted fade in/outs of the tracks are kind of cool at first, but then they just feel predictable and staged, probably a continuous flowing track would be better than this approach. Our favorite track of this release is the very diverse “I Fade Away”, thanks to the melancholic feeling of this track; we can’t seem to stop playing it over and over. The band does a great job in carving a few melancholic/melodic passages into their tracks and then slowly builds up to double-kick all-out Black Metal sections with hellish screams. While not the most original transitions, they do a good job in executing them flawlessly.

Experimenting with guitar distortions and somewhat repetitive sections, “Beneath the Crown of Cranes” is quite an engaging and interesting song to listen to. With some Post-Rock/Shoegaze-ish elements, “Giving Their Heir to the Masses” and the closer “[Asphyxia] we have interesting sounding tracks that shows the potential of the band in terms of creativity.

While we are not going to hate on the band for being on a ‘big label’, something that hipster Black Metal bands try to avoid for some reason, or the fact that they are very formulaic on their first few songs, we think that Downfall of Gaia did a solid job in this release. The band shows promise and very good ideas in their later songs of the album. If you are a fan of bands like Wolves in the Throne Room, Fell Voices, etc., give this band a shot and you won’t be disappointed.

Release: October 9th, 2012

Genre: Black Metal

Country: Germany