Customer Reviews

Into the Depths of Sorrow

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Solitude Aeturnus is probably the only american band among my list of faves. This album is easily one of my all time fave albums. Absolutely perfect, melodic doom. Robert Lowe's vocals blend perfectly with the distortion.

Solitude Aeturnus are a doom metal band from Texas who began their career with this 1991 release INTO THE DEPTHS OF SORROW. The title would suggest that this is likely melancholic, suicide-obsessed music, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Yes, the music is heavy and doomy, but it's more mid-paced than slow, and it's interspersed with beautiful acoustic pieces. Floating over it all are the soothing and passionate vocals of Rob Lowe. His voice is so inimitable it's hard to compare, but if pressed I'd say he's similar to Messiah Marcolin of Candlemass, albeit not operatic at all. (This similarity, incidently, explains why Rob replaced Messiah in 2007 to play in BOTH bands).

The lyrical themes are largely spiritual and mature in nature. One glance at the song titles shows that these guys' minds are focused on things that transcend the mundane -- "Dream of Immortality," "Where Angels Fear to Tread," "Transcending Sentinels," etc. So the listener shouldn't expect superficial, nihilistic or vulgar themes like "Rock and Roll All Night," "May Death Reign" or "Gutted Like a Fish." Interestingly, most of the lyrics were written by their bass player at the time, Lyle Steadham.

It's useless to cite favorite songs because this is the type of cd where you just press 'play' and allow Solitude Aeturnus to take you on a journey to other realms. The band is so unique because, despite being metal, the music is more trance-inducing than jamming, if you know what I mean -- trance-inducing in a good way, of course.

INTO THE DEPTHS OF SORROW is not a cd I put on often, but when I do I always enjoy it, from beginning to end.

I can't believe I've listened to metal since 1994, and I cant believe it took me until late 07 to hear this band. I'd seen the name for a while in passing, but after checking out Candlemass' King of the Grey Islands, I sought out SA albums and found this one first. Rob Lowe's voice is beyond spectacular, particularly this and the follow up, Beyond the Crimson Horizon. It's really what makes them special. Don't get me wrong their music is excellant, like Justice-era METALLICA meets Perfect Symmety-era FATES WARNING, but it's his voice, at times reminiscent of Maynard from TOOL. "Transcending Sentinals" is my favortie track, although the opener and "White Ships" rank high up there.