Pick of the week: Throes of Dawn - The Great Fleet of Echoes

Again it's been ages since I've last written anything, but now I'm back in action. This time we have here a fairly old album, from 2010, but it's just so good that I must write about it.

Back around the time this album came out I knew practically nothing about Throes of Dawn. Then they were interviewed in the Finnish metal magazine called Inferno and caught my interest. I went and bought the album and while I still don't know a whole lot about the band, I know that this is an awesome album.

Throes of Dawn play, for lack of a better term, gothic metal that hits a sweet spot where the doom and sludge I mostly listen to can't reach, not entirely unlike modern Katatonia. So don't go in expecting a barrage of crushing guitars and anguished screaming, the melancholy here is of a more brooding sort and laden with beautiful melodies, only occasionally accented by the odd growl.

I fully expected Throes of Dawn to break through with this album (maybe they have, but if they have, it's gone completely under my radar) but I suppose the best things don't attract a very wide audience. For me, however, this is one of the best records to have come out in 2010.

But don't just take my word for it, take a listen:

The Great Fleet of Echoes is out on Firebox Records.
Throes of Dawn official website