Façade - The Eternal Dance
Façade is a Dutch doom/death metal band formed in 2011. The death metal elements in their sound can mostly be spotted out on Ben de Graaff's vocals which are influenced by the early 90's doom/death metal singing and bands like (early) Paradise Lost. "The Eternal Dance" is Façade's second full length album after "Loathe" (2017). A split with Locus Amoenus was released in 2018 to fill the gap between the 2 albums.
What immediately attracted my attention in the band's line up was their decision to embody 3 guitar players in. Of course this is not an innovation in metal bands, but it works really very well in Façade and helps the band to melodically and harmonically color their songs. What also attracted my attention in "The Eternal Dance" was the outstanding artwork created by Liesbeth Tatjana Poot. It features the Hindu mythological goddess Kali both a mother goddess as well as a bringer of destruction in a bipolar of good vs evil within the self. So, it was lightning fast for me to think of this artwork and how tasty it will be on the cover of the limited edition double vinyl. The album is also released on digipack CD edition.
To get to the music part of the album again, at some parts like in the end of the opening song 'Unmade' the guitars seem to flirt with post rock and the sound of bands like Godspeed You Black Emperor! Apart from their clearly doom style, I can listen in Façade to influences from bands like Katatonia, Anathema and Clouds (their bass player Pim van Dijk was also a Clouds live member).
On 'Mask' Ben de Graaff vocals (also vocalist of the avant-garde death/doom metal legends Phlebotomized) are very emotional while maintaining an old school doom/death vibe. The bridge in the middle of the song sounds to me like guitar/synth and is fabulously serene in an almost progressive rock manner.
'Ego' presents an avant garde mixture of Saint Vitus doom patterns with the genious of Gregor Macintosh and early Paradise Lost plus some King Crimson progressive rock complexity.
The journey of "The Eternal Dance" continues with the song 'Death'. Once you let yourself drown in Façade's doom/death melodies you will only be left asking for more. And although their songs are very long (from 7-12 minutes), the orchestration is such that leaves the listener impressed and without the faintest sign of boredom.
The last song of the album is 'Moksha'. At this point, to make clear the band's intentions of the album, I have to say that "The Eternal Dance" is a concept album about cycles in environment, ideas and life itself. Everything is part of a never ending cycle that is consisted of smaller cycles being just a part of a larger scale/cycle that unites the Human with the Universe. When a cycle ends, a new one begins and this is our human life quest for eternity. Each of the 5 songs of the album represents a cycle. So, we have the 'Unmade' opening cycle, the cycle 'Mask', the cycle 'Ego', the cycle 'Death' and the cycle 'Moksha', each of them representing a life-phase.
'Moksha' is sanskrit for liberation and freedom and represents the release from the cycle of death and rebirth. It features spoken word by the 20th century zen philosopher Alan Watts (1915-1973), taken out of a lecture of his with general theme his thoughts on death. The lead guitar in the middle of the song is David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) inspired and you will immediately love it. For the philosophical search of Alan Watts, you can start your research by checking out this link with his speech.
And this is "The Eternal Dance" of energy, a poetic neverending cycle of the unborn masked to an ego born to die and be free to return. Musically all Façade songs begin heavy and powerful but still doomy, to progress into a more sluggish and dragging sequence with progressive/experimental elements towards the end of each song.
What we have here is an excellent piece of Art!
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What immediately attracted my attention in the band's line up was their decision to embody 3 guitar players in. Of course this is not an innovation in metal bands, but it works really very well in Façade and helps the band to melodically and harmonically color their songs. What also attracted my attention in "The Eternal Dance" was the outstanding artwork created by Liesbeth Tatjana Poot. It features the Hindu mythological goddess Kali both a mother goddess as well as a bringer of destruction in a bipolar of good vs evil within the self. So, it was lightning fast for me to think of this artwork and how tasty it will be on the cover of the limited edition double vinyl. The album is also released on digipack CD edition.
To get to the music part of the album again, at some parts like in the end of the opening song 'Unmade' the guitars seem to flirt with post rock and the sound of bands like Godspeed You Black Emperor! Apart from their clearly doom style, I can listen in Façade to influences from bands like Katatonia, Anathema and Clouds (their bass player Pim van Dijk was also a Clouds live member).
On 'Mask' Ben de Graaff vocals (also vocalist of the avant-garde death/doom metal legends Phlebotomized) are very emotional while maintaining an old school doom/death vibe. The bridge in the middle of the song sounds to me like guitar/synth and is fabulously serene in an almost progressive rock manner.
'Ego' presents an avant garde mixture of Saint Vitus doom patterns with the genious of Gregor Macintosh and early Paradise Lost plus some King Crimson progressive rock complexity.
The journey of "The Eternal Dance" continues with the song 'Death'. Once you let yourself drown in Façade's doom/death melodies you will only be left asking for more. And although their songs are very long (from 7-12 minutes), the orchestration is such that leaves the listener impressed and without the faintest sign of boredom.
The last song of the album is 'Moksha'. At this point, to make clear the band's intentions of the album, I have to say that "The Eternal Dance" is a concept album about cycles in environment, ideas and life itself. Everything is part of a never ending cycle that is consisted of smaller cycles being just a part of a larger scale/cycle that unites the Human with the Universe. When a cycle ends, a new one begins and this is our human life quest for eternity. Each of the 5 songs of the album represents a cycle. So, we have the 'Unmade' opening cycle, the cycle 'Mask', the cycle 'Ego', the cycle 'Death' and the cycle 'Moksha', each of them representing a life-phase.
'Moksha' is sanskrit for liberation and freedom and represents the release from the cycle of death and rebirth. It features spoken word by the 20th century zen philosopher Alan Watts (1915-1973), taken out of a lecture of his with general theme his thoughts on death. The lead guitar in the middle of the song is David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) inspired and you will immediately love it. For the philosophical search of Alan Watts, you can start your research by checking out this link with his speech.
And this is "The Eternal Dance" of energy, a poetic neverending cycle of the unborn masked to an ego born to die and be free to return. Musically all Façade songs begin heavy and powerful but still doomy, to progress into a more sluggish and dragging sequence with progressive/experimental elements towards the end of each song.
What we have here is an excellent piece of Art!
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1. Unmade
2. Mask
3. Ego
4. Death
5. Moksha
2. Mask
3. Ego
4. Death
5. Moksha
Self released
Reviewer: Manos Michaelides
Nov 18, 2019
Nov 18, 2019
Next review:
Evulse - Call Of The Void
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