...all beautiful life is gone...

Finland has become a breeding ground for some of the bleakest, darkest and utterly melancholic Metal in the scene today, spawning the suicidal tones of This Empty Flow (formed out of the ashes of doom cult Thergethon), Skepticism, Unholy, As Divine Grace, and now Dolorian, whose debut album, When All The Laughter Has Gone is without question the darkest Metal album I've ever heard.

Before hitting the play button, it's easily evident from the stark packaging that you are in for one dark voyage indeed, a fate which is confirmed within the first few seconds of opener "Desolated Colours". Spitting bitter hatred through a venomous Black Metal scorn, A. Haapapuro's vocal approach is the only aspect of Dolorian's sound which connects it with Black Metal, as the music crawls along at a hauntingly slow pace, hypnotizing the listener into a freezing catatonic state, leaving you to sit there and stare vacantly while Dolorian force you face first into your darkest fears and injects your soul with all the pain you've suffered through your exsistence. Believe me, there is not one single moment on this entire album where the suffocating darkness and misanthropic vibe lets up...no light creeping through the darkness here...no way out. Complete and utter blackness.

The bleak spirit that was at the core of Katatonia's Dance Of December Souls and Paradise Lost's Gothic is alive and festering within When All The Laughter Has Gone. Only this time it's an even bleaker, darker and hateful spirit that has become eternally intoxicated with all the torment and despair of a thousand souls...This is an album that can only be consumed in the deepest of night, surrounded by total darkness...l challenge anyone to sit through the entirety of this album in the aforementioned atmosphere and walk away afterwards without having been deeply affected in some way...I know I couldn't.

...all gone are the beautiful lies...

an album such as this is unrateable..

This review is credited to:
palewake