Soliloquium – Famine Review

By Steel Druhm

In my never-ending quest to accumulate as many bands as possible that remind me of tragically defunct Finnish doom-death legends, Rapture, I crossed paths with Sweden’s two-man project, Soliloquium, back in 2018 through their Contemplations album. It was an entirely pleasant slab of moody, emotive melancholic death borrowing from early Katatonia, Insomnium, and of course, Rapture. It scratched an itch and made me a fan. 2020s Things We Leave Behind hit just as COVID was starting its assault on the world, and the album’s downcast and depressive beauty became a staple in the House of Steel as we watched the world lock down and drift. Somehow, I missed that Soliloquium dropped a new album in 2022, and I almost missed their latest too. Famine is the band’s fifth release, and Stefan Nordström and Jonas Bergkvist are still steering the ship, though this time they invited lots of friends to help out. Can this depressive duo keep the weepy doom-death flowing like fine wine on a cold Swedish day?

Things start out promising on the wide-ranging title track. It’s in the usual Soliloquium modality, with morose clean croons and sparse melancholic guitar plucking giving way to darker tones with guttural death roars and blackened shrieks cropping up. Doomy harominies percolate and fall off, and the mood is kept dark and brooding. The equipoise between melodic trills and the crushing quasi-death-doom is well executed and convincing. Strong hints of October Tide and Swallow the Sun flow freely, and the feel of a brutal winter of discontent is achieved. At the 3:45 point, things seem to end, only to lurch back into what sounds like an entirely new composition, and by the end of the 6:37 runtime, the enterprise ends up feeling long but worthwhile. Far superior is “2 A.M.,” which perfectly encapsulates all that’s right with the Soliloquium sound. It has a lot of Rapture’s best elements blended in, and there’s some beautifully emotional guitar work here in the vein of Tuomas Saukkonen’s Before the Dawn / Black Sun Aeon style. Jari Lindholm (Enshine, ex-Slumber) provides amazing lead guitar work here, elevating the song several degrees, and the nods to Katatonia’s Brave Murder Day era are icing on the depression cake.

Other solid moments include the later era Anathema-esque fragile Goth of “The Healing Process,” where beautiful vocals from Bianca Höllmüller enhance the weepy charms; and the very Ghost Brigade-esque doom rock of “Poison Well,” where Chelsea Rocha-Murphy of Dawn of Ouroboros drops by to keep things despondent with her haunting vocals. I especially enjoy the death n’ roll bit that erupts around the 3-minute mark. “Själamörker” is also quite tasty. Sung in the duo’s native Swedish, Stefan Nordström effectively blends his sadboi cleans and mammoth cookie monster roars on a bulldozer of a tune that hits every doom-death trope. It’s heavy but sorrowful, crushing but melodic. Unfortunately, things go pear-shaped for the album’s final third, where the heavy reliance on clean singing turns out to be ill-conceived. The last 3 tracks all suffer greatly from vocal issues (Stefan’s or his guests) as clean but underpowered, droning, and overly twee vocal tones become prevalent. The songs themselves have good things going for them, but they can’t overcome the vocal shortcomings. At 51 minutes, Famine also suffers from bloat, especially on the final few “troubled” tracks.

While I’ve always appreciated Stefan’s death and blackened vocals, he wasn’t known for his clean singing, usually employing guest singers to do the job. Here, he tries to carry more of the load himself with mixed results. While he’s effective on “The Healing Process,” he too often adopts a static, droning Goth-rock style that feels weak, flat, and entirely lacking in oomph. This derails tracks like “Weight of the Unspoken” and the closing epic “Vigil.” On the plus side, his death roars and blackened rasps are spot on and as effective as ever. His guitar work is always high quality and a reason the material resonates, as he does a good job conveying a bleak, cold atmosphere across Famine, borrowing from all the big names in the genre for some inspired moments.

I’m a fan of what Soliloquium do and there are great moments of melancholic doom here, but the writing isn’t as consistent as before and the vocal shortcomings are sometimes glaring. If Famine stopped at “Själamörker, ” this would be a very good album. It doesn’t, though, and by the final act, the weaknesses begin to show through. Warts and all, Famine is still a worthwhile listen with some big moments. Fans of the sadboi ways should give it a chance and see how it hits them in the feelz. I still miss Rapture.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Meuse Music
Websites: soliloquium.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/soliloquiumband
Releases Worldwide: April 11th, 2025

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Dawn of Solace – Affliction Vortex Review

By Steel Druhm

When Tuomas Saukkonen of Wolfheart, Before the Dawn, and Black Sun Aeon fame resurrected his Dawn of Solace project with the help of mighty Goth vocalist Mikko Heikkilä (ex-Sinamore) for 2020s Waves, big things happened. The duo’s experience working on Black Sun Aeon paid dividends and together they created a rich, engrossing, highly memorable slab of melancholic doom/death dripping with Finnish sadboi glory. Waves ended up my Record o’ the Year for 2020 and I still break it out when winter winds begin to blow. 2022s Flames of Perdition was a worthy follow-up though it couldn’t quite reach the same lofty heights as its predecessor. Affliction Vortex is the third collaboration between Toumas and Mikko under the Dawn of Solace banner and wisely, they haven’t tweaked the formula much. It’s still uber-glum melo-doom designed for a cold winter’s night introspection and all the key elements are in place. But can it hope to rival the maudlin majesty of Waves?

Not a chance, but it’s hard to resist what Tuomas and Mikko brew up nonetheless. Toumas has proven himself a master craftsman when it comes to weepy, despondent guitar work and sullen writing, and he’s lost none of his edge. When paired with Mikko’s smooth but pained vocals, good things are bound to happen. First proper track “Murder” is a classic Dawn of Solace composition, weighed down with forlorn guitar lines and carried expertly by Mikko’s despondent crooning. It’s exactly the kind of song you expect and desire from the duo and it doesn’t disappoint. This would have sat well on Waves, and no further compliments need be paid. “Fortress” begins life sounding like something off Katatonia’s Viva Emptiness with tense, angular riffs, before Toumas comes in with weighty death bellows and trilling harmonies that take things back to Finnish environs. “Into the Light” sounds like an old Black Sun Aeon song dug up and reworked, and I’m predestined to like it due to the downcast riffs and Finnish graveyard aesthetic. Tuomas delivers icy black rasps for extra chills and all is well.

The album crests with “Rival” – one of the best songs to come out of the Tuomas/Mikko collaboration, which is saying something. Mikko stretches himself vocally, providing an emotive journey that climaxes with a stellar chorus that hits just right. It’s sullen but vibrant and I can’t get enough of it. “Dream” is another stone-cold killer, leveraging Mikko’s vocal talents for maximum payoff as Tuomas roars in the background. Shades of Rapture live large in this one, but it’s undeniably a Tuomas joint. Some songs like “Invitation” recycle the sounds of Before the Dawn and Black Sun Aeon more than others, but it’s done toward good ends. “Perennial” is an interesting cut, slower, heavier and more dependent on Tuomas’ death grunts while Mikko alters his delivery toward something more rock-based. It stands out and almost feels out of place, but it works. At a tight 39 minutes, there’s no unsightly padding and only one track breaks the 4-minute barrier. This makes for a brisk, engaging spin with a solid replay factor.

What more can be said of the talents of this duo? Tuomas has proven his worth on countless albums spanning multiple genres and he continues to find inspiration in the darker side of life and the human psyche. He excels at crafting depressive doom and his riffcraft is always high quality. There are many of his cold, fragile, and morose leads here and plenty of his Gothy trilling and harmonizing too. His death roars and blackened rasps are good as always, injecting extremity into the melancholy while adding an effective counterpoint to Mikko’s disconsolate singing. Speaking of which, Mikko is always a slam dunk when it comes to this kind of music. He’s the prototype of a Goth metal singer and his voice is perfectly suited to the dejected songcraft. This is one of those pairings you can count on to deliver, and they do it again here.

I doubt Dawn of Solace will ever top what they accomplished on Waves, but three albums into the Mikko era, they’ve done nothing but deliver high quality output. Affliction Vortex is more or less the equal to Flames of Perdition with major highs and no duds. They’ve found a sweet spot in the sadboi doom genre and I hope they continue to mine it for more gems. I’ll keep buying until they hit the unruly Balrog.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Noble Demon
Websites: dawnofsolace.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/dawnofsolace |
Releases Worldwide: February 14th, 2025

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