For a music fan, one of the best things about living right outside Boston is all the used records shops scattered throughout the city. There is one store in the city that has a small area in the back where they put CDs priced at $2. I've been buying from this shop for nearly fifteen years now, and I've found countless amazing albums from that $2 section over the years. Finland's Before The Dawn is one of those bands. Years ago I found My Darkness there. I'd never heard of the band before, but the CD looked cool, and it was cheap—the perfect combo. From the opening riff of "Unbreakable," I was "all ears." I was blown away by its seamless mix of gothic, doom-death, and melodic death metal. A few months later, I found their follow-up, 4:17am, in the same section. Again, I was mightily impressed. Since then, I've not waited to find their stuff in the used bin; The First Chapter DVD, their third full-length, The Ghost, and its melancholic companion album The Darkness—released under the moniker Dawn Of Solace—were all purchased immediately upon release. The import prices are worth it; Before The Dawn is just too good to wait.
Just a year after the release of The Ghost and The Darkness, Before The Dawn mastermind Tuomas Saukkonen (ex-Bonegrinder, Teargod, The Final Harvest) churned out yet another album, Deadlight. Prior to its release Before The Dawn released a single for the song "Deadsong." The single features three tracks (two exclusive): "Deadsong," "The Bitter End" (a Placebo cover), and a re-recorded—and far superior—version of "Gehenna" (originally on 2001s Gehenna EP).
The greatness of "Deadsong" is immediate. A pounding, riff-heavy intro leads into a mellow verse. Once again the outstanding clean vocals are provided by Lars Eikind (Winds, Age Of Silence, ex-Khold). A brilliant, double-bass-filled chorus follows, with Lars' clean vocals intermingled with Tuomas' subdued screams; and a brutal mid-section puts a gleaming stamp on this three-and-a-half minute masterpiece. The re-recorded version of "Gehenna" follows. On a basic level both original and new version are similar, but they play like different songs; the new version being much heavier, while the original sounds more like something done by Furbowl, only laced with 80s goth-pop keyboard flourishes. This new version fits in well with Before The Dawn's most recent output. The original also featured some great piano-like keyboard work during the mid-section and ending—that is sorely missed on this new version. The lack of it takes nothing away from this updated version, but I think it would have added a little more emotion to the song overall. The re-recording also lacks the whispered opening verse, and some other vocal bits, that were on the original. Either way, both new and old are great tunes. The single closes with their version of Placebo's classic "The Bitter End," from their Sleeping With Ghosts album. Being unfamiliar with the original, one would be hard-pressed to imagine this dark, goth-drenched Before The Dawn version as the light and fluffy, pumped-up pop-rock song that is the original. The grim, brooding nature of the music lends the lyrics a decidedly twisted and creepy feel, not present on the original, and making lines like "reminds me of the second time that I followed you home" and "reminds me that it's killing time, on this fateful day" seem more menacing and foreboding.
Deadsong was the perfect prelude to Deadlight. The outstanding title track filled the void until the full-length was released; the two exclusive tracks gave fans a little something extra to dig into; and it's a great nod to the past for those not fortunate enough to have heard the original Gehenna EP. Finding Before The Dawn's releases outside of Finland may be difficult—you won't see their albums on the shelves of retail stores here in the U.S., sadly—at least not around here—but they're definitely worth seeking out. Deadsong may only be a single, but it's worth the price of a full album.
Album note: The tracklisting on this single is incorrect. The booklet lists track two and three as "The Bitter End" and "Gehenna" respectively. What is on the CD, however, is the opposite.
Video: Deadsong, Faithless
Audio: Morning Sun (Clip), Wrath (Clip)
Website: http://www.beforethedawn.com
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/beforethedawnmusic
Note: Many of these links are external. In time, they may become obsolete.
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