The tone on “Pale Season” is often mellow, somber, low-key, and emotionally deep - - with a lot of softly distorted arpeggio guitar parts. The Metal comes in flourishes; otherwise, it’s often about as heavy as a Phil Collins record. These are clearly songwriters who’ve moved beyond concerns for arbitrary genre labels. Their focus now is on making good music. Mission accomplished.
The tunes can lull their way into the background, which is fine. As an album, it seems designed to build to a climactic finish, with beautiful “Anti Meridian,” which sounds like it could have come directly from Opeth’s “Damnation” album, leading into “Signals in the Sky,” featuring guest lead vocals from Draconian’s own Heike Langhan, who for my money - - without hyperbole - - is the greatest musical voice of this century. Put her in vocal command of an already-good song, and you can’t lose.
This is highly-recommended for fans of Katatonia, Opeth, Draconian, Porcupine Tree, Yes, Rush.
