Décembre Noir - The Renaissance of Hope (2020)

Hailing from Germany, today we have Melodic Death/Doom Metal outfit Décembre Noir with their harrowing fourth full-length release “The Renaissance of Hope”. Featuring nearly 50 minutes of firm and yet highly emotional music, the band delivers six brutal tracks that brilliantly balance fragility, aggression and melody. For fans of bands like Swallow the Sun, My Dying Bride, and similar outfits, this release will certainly bring some fuzzy warmness during the winter months.

Opening with the pummeling “A Swan Lake Full of Tears”, the band quickly establishes a hefty balance between incisive guitar riffs and gruff growls. Setting a high bar, this track is quite hectic and powerful even as it progresses into more melodic and solemn minimalist interludes with clean vocals. Those looking for heavier pieces, “Hope/Renaissance” and “Wings of Eschaton” are both quite pummeling thanks to crafty drum patterns and very heavy dueling guitar work. While many bands tend to become overly melodic, Décembre Noir’s sound is quite firm and ravaging.

Changing things up a bit, tracks like “Ritual and Fire” and “Streets of Transience” deliver very cool melodic passages and crafty tempo changes. While the first track has a more all-out headbanging approach, the later opens with a cool Moonspell-ish vibe, which slowly evolves into more contrasting headbanging passages. The band’s sound has enough range to cover multiple styles within a single song, making their music quite engaging and far from linear.

In a year filled with excellent Melodic Death/Doom Metal releases, “The Renaissance of Hope” is one of those well polished releases that perfectly blends all melody and aggression to create a dense and effective atmosphere. Not too melancholic, not too melodic, but all well crafted, Décembre Noir has unleashed their best effort to date, and should be heard by all fans of the genre.

Label: LifeForce Records

Release: November 13th, 2020

Genre: Melodic Doom/Death Metal

Country: Germany