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Passage is an epic doom metal band hailing from the French-Canadian area of North America. This is the initial release from these guys and the band impressively enough is really a two-man project with Sebastien “Roby” Robitaille on vocals, guitars, and bass, with Luc Gaulin handling the drums and keyboards. On a few songs, there are also some female vocals that add an interesting gothic touch to the otherwise very doomy sound.
With eight songs clocking in at a little bit under an hour, the album trudges along slowly but effectively. Though the songs are indeed quite different from each other, they all tie in together pretty well in maintaining a utterly mournful atmosphere. The plodding, creepy riffs are absolutely drenched in sorrow. The listener is literally hurled through an arena of agonizing pain, regret, and remorse. As you might expect things are very slow paced with a few tracks picking up the tempo midway through.
A special emphasis must be put on the sorrowful melodys crafted by the band. I found this to be the real stronghold of this record, as the guitar leads and solos are sharp and on cue. Songs such as “No Dawn Again” and “It’s Gone Too Far” clearly illustrate this. The cleanly sung vocals by Roby are another noteworthy aspect. While a portion of the musical arrangements on here are fairly reminiscent of the 90s British Doom-Death bands we have all come to know and love, Passage put an interesting spin on things by utilizing Roby’s vocal abilities. This was a good decision because not only does he have a good vocal range, but also his passionate singing really fits the music and gives the band a distinct sound. Altogether this collection comes across as very emotional in the first place, and this is certainly not music for all times of the day (you probably don’t want to throw this on if your taking a daytime drive to an amusement park)…you definitely have to be in the mood for this and you as a listener will have to decide when it fits best. While reaching the end of this album all in one sitting can become a bit of a tedious task, I think it is unquestionably safe to say that fans of true doom will no doubt relish in the expanded sorrows. For this reason this collection comes highly recommended to doom fans and anyone else willing to take a gander into exploring the melancholy.
| Tracklist |
| 1. Perfect World |
| 2. No Dawn Again |
| 3. A Death In Autumn |
| 4. It's Gone Too Far |
| 5. The Burden |
| 6. Only Pale Souvenirs |
| 7. Last Broken Dream |
| 8. Coma |
: 56.47
| Buy other Passage albums |
