I put my name down for the Vesperian Sorrow review knowing nothing about the band other than that they play symphonic black metal, and that was good enough. At its best, the subgenre produces moments of sublime awe. At its worst, it offers a different brand of experiences never to be repeated. Since Awaken The Greylight is Vesperian Sorrow‘s fifth album I doubted they were the latter but my point stands. The marriage of strong musical elements makes for a high drama potential either way.
The bellicose notes of opener “As The Pillars Were Raised” shows Vesperian Sorrow meeting my desire for drama. It reminds me of Dimmu Borgir in their more violent and slick moments. “Antediluvian – Proceeding The Unshaping” follows suit with another slice of bombastically aggressive metal that made clever use of an Insomnium-esque melody to provide contrast. Then, for some reason, Vesperian Sorrow stopped doing that. Most of Awaken the Greylight is more symphonic than black metal except the keys are nowhere near prominent enough to truly feel symphonic. Nor are the guitars prominent enough to feel like a meloblack album. Nor is the atmosphere actually strong enough to be dark and gothic. Now there is nothing wrong with straddling subgenres but the impressive way to do that is by combining the key point of many subgenres to create something fresh and compelling. Awaken the Greylight misses those key points instead and as a result, comes across as lacking intensity. Vesperian Sorrow hits their best form again late on in Awaken the Greylight with “They Beheld the Chainbreaker’s Unwonted Defiance” but that only deepens the sense the album is a missed opportunity.
I have in my frustration probably made Awaken the Greylight sound worse than it is. At no point did I think “why am I listening to this”. There is just such a contrast between the majority of the songs, which is pleasant enough melodic metal, and the songs where they came out of the gate hard. The former are decent. The latter are rather good and I’d have gobbled this up if Vesperian Sorrow had focused more on this sound. The people who like the former will think I’m crazy, and I’m glad they’re enjoying this album. But for myself there’s a touch of Anti-Peatonian sorrow that Awaken the Greylight is more grey and less awakening.
