Draconian - Turning Season Within

July 16, 2008

Reviewer: Jesse

Turning Season Within, Draconian’s third full-length album has proved to be somewhat difficult for me to review.  It’s taken a dozen or more spins before I could even start writing this.  It’s not that this album is ridiculously complex or breathtakingly beyond words, it’s that I can’t decide if I’m completely enamored by it, totally turned off or straddling the indecision fence somewhere in between.  But the more I stall, the more I realize that I’m somewhere in between and should just face it.  The thing is that my expectations were that should I be anything less than completely enamored, then it would be a disappointment and I guess that’s what I’m struggling with.  This is the band that blew the competition away three years ago with Arcane Rain Fell and was subsequently my album of the year for 2005.  Fair or not, I expect big things from bands that have impressed me to such extents in the past.

With Draconian’s first two albums, they gracefully incorporated elements of both goth and doom to create a style that while not wholly unique, was still head and shoulders above anyone even attempting to do the same.  Arcane Rain Fell is still one of the more beautiful and bleak albums I’ve ever heard.  Turning Season Within seems to have opted for an enthusiasm for more of a goth feel and less doom.  Not completely mind you, but enough to be very noticeable.  The majority of the songs cut right to the chase and have very catchy melodies.  The female vocals take on more of a role and the deep growls are lightened up.  There is of course a lack of keyboards which is to say that the full goth sound is not apparent, at least, not apparent in all of its cheese.  Really, what I’m trying to get at is that the doom has been tuned down and all that leaves us with is an awkward gothy Draconian release.

At least, that was my first impression.  But with many more listens, I started to embrace it a lot and realized that the songs were still very well written and would stay in my head for long periods of time.  It wouldn’t take long until I was almost slapping myself for ever doubting them and understood that I just needed to let it sink in some more.  They deserve that from me.  The only problem was that with each listen, I started to understand the lyrics more and more, which turned out to not be a good thing.  In fact, the lyrics frankly, are downright terrible and schoolgirlishly emo.  Now don’t get me wrong, I know that Draconian has always been a very emotional band and wear their hearts on their sleeves, but this is a little much.  I’m generally the last person to use lyrics as a negative when reviewing an album because for the most part, lyrics don’t interest me at all.  But when they’re so clearly audible and I listen to it enough times, what can I do?  I have no choice but to let them influence my opinion and in this case, it didn’t do them any favors.

So this is where I am.  This release contains great songwriting even though there is a twinge of disappointment in the style direction and embarrassing lyrics that you can’t avoid.  It really wasn’t until the fifth song, “The Failure Epiphany,” that I heard the old Draconian shine through which I’m sorry to say should not have taken five songs to get to.  Just as I’m starting to feel good about the first few, I’m reminded at what the true Draconian sound is all about and I’m back on the fence and again, stalling this review.

Overall, Turning Season Within is still a very good album, one that 90% of their peers would love to be able to write, except that before this album, Draconian had very few peers.  Nothing on this album gave me goose bumps.  That’s quite the contrast to the previous albums.

Release Date: February 29th, 2008
Label: Napalm Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  Seasons Apart
2.  When I Wake
3.  Earthbound
4.  Not Breathing
5.  The Failure Epiphany
6.  Morphine Cloud
7.  Bloodflower
8.  The Empty Stare
9.  September Ashes

Total playing time: 52:31

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