| Blue Fire (CD) | 1996 | Eibon Records |
I cannot overemphasize my love for this band. Canaan, and 'Blue Fire' especially, crafts an ethereal dream world of sound. The opening track, 'The eleventh shadow', immediately pulls the listener into the doomy atmosphere with its mixture of hauntingly clear guitar over sludgy distortion. Mauro begins his lyric work instantly and the instruments layer under his voice. The track is short, and ends with a nice melodic retreat. 'Thin concentric circles', embellishes the point with more poignant build-up of guitar and keyboard. Vocals are subdued here to more of a chant, but the groove is maintained. 'Incantesime d'autunno' stands out as the gem of the album as it most concretely reflects the album's melodic groove of doomy, depressive aesthetics.
The problem I have with 'Blue Fire' is the same difficulty I have with all Canaan releases. It is now expected when listening to any Canaan album that an instrumental, perhaps experimental track will slide between each “normal” track. The wonderful build up of instrument into voice of every vocal (I call it "normal") track always culminates into a climax and rewarding retreat. The truly ingenious aspect of a great Canaan song is that the individual is representative of the whole album. 'Blue Fire' begins with an incredible opening that is short and to the point, perfectly drawing the listener in to the mood. Guitar and drums build upon the vocal layer to establish a groove that demands attention. But there is quite an emotional let-down with the second track, 'Dreamsword', which is little more than abstract noise. With the exception of 'Aranea tedii', each of the “noise” tracks serves only to alienate the listener from the incredible atmosphere of preceding and subsequent "normal" tracks. This is not to say that the noise tracks are not expertly crafted and artful, they are simply out of place.
An alternative view of the juxtaposition of noise and normal tracks is possible. The true appeal of Canaan is the layering process of instrument and voice. The layering process is certainly not unique to Canaan, although their mastery is evident, and it could be argued that the layering is spread across 'Blue Fire' with the use of the instrumental tracks. Each instrumental track acts as an intermission of sorts between emotional journeys, making each song act as a layer to the whole of the album. The concept is terrifically conceived, but I fear that it acts detrimentally to the enjoyment of the album. When the opening track ends, there is such a rush of enjoyment and anticipation for more development on track two, but 'Dreamsword' is nothing more than a series of abstract noises, and from the plateau that 'The eleventh shadow' established, a precipitous fall. This is evidenced again with 'Temporal Stasis'.
Perhaps that is the intent - to carry the listener on a rocky ride of emotional involvement, which is intriguing, but I feel disappointed. When so invested in such unique and depressive music, I do not expect nor desire to be immediately immersed in a cold pool of noise. I've connected to the mood and have been essentially slapped across the face for doing so.
Thankfully, I can easily skip the noise tracks and immerse myself back into the beauty of Canaan.
1. The Eleventh Shadow
2. Dreamsword
3. Thin Concentric Circles
4. Aranea Tedii
5. Incantesimo D´Autunno
6. Temporal Stasis
7. Noir (Your Coloured Soul)
8. Doloris Charisma
9. Moongod
10. Splendor´s Bearer
11. Orien
12. The Luminous Trinity
13. Our Little Hidden Treasures
14. This Grey Enemy
Approx. 61 minutes
Re-released in 2002 by Eibon Records with different artwork
| Walk Into My Open Womb (2CD) | 1998 | Eibon Records |
With such short lyrics laid bare, only the music and craftsmanship of combining the elements stand for judgment. Thankfully, it works so well as to bring tears to the eye. 'Heaven' works nearly as well, but suppresses the lyrics to mere drones and inaudible rants. This forces the listener to concentrate on his or her emotional response to the aesthetic. The tempo remains constant, yet layers are built upon layers with new instruments entering and escaping the soundscape. This energizes, or rather psyches up the listener, to use the energy of the layering. If the atmosphere wasn't so introspective and ethereal, I would use this song as inspiration before running a marathon or some other heroic feat. But the song is intended to elicit despair not heroism, and because the listener can't help but succumb to the utter defeat of his soul, the energy that one draws from the song serves only to make the emotional response that much stronger.
A two-disc masterpiece, 'Walk Into My Open Womb' remains one of the essential doom albums of all time. This album is plagued only by the occasional shift into noise tracks that is evident in every Canaan release (see my review of 'Blue Fire'). Certainly others do not share my distain for these nonsense tracks, and in fact I do not wholly dislike them - I just feel that they are out of place and may stand up well on a separate release. The second album also tends to delve into the whiny minimalism that sometimes mars My Dying Bride and other bands. The track 'Roomaskin' is a good example of this. However, the noise tracks and occasional filler tracks do little to damage the otherwise beautiful creation that is this double album.
1. The Kanaanian Dawn
2. Surrounded
3. A Magic Farewell
4. The Glass Shield
5. The Pride Of Perdition
6. Aurora Consurgens
7. Walk Into My Open Womb
8. Scent of Anguish
9. Remembrance
10. Codex Void
11. Left
12. Heaven
13. The Rite Of Hummiliation
14. Roomaskin
15. The Orion Conspiracy
16. A Song for Pain
17. A New Beginning
18. Angel Nail
Approx. 93 minutes
| The Unsaid Words (CD) | 2006 | Eibon Records |
Despite the remarkable evolution from their debut ’Blue Fire’ and its clear references to the band’s predecessor Ras Algethi to the more and more accessible output of their last few albums, the band has lost nothing of its initial dark melancholy and pessimistic outlook. ’The Unsaid Words’ is another logical step in their musical evolution, as it still contains the elements one should expect from this extraordinary collective: the slow, melancholic songs led by Mauro’s characteristically wailing vocals; the noise/soundscape intermezzi; the ethnic elements (here present in some amazing instrumentals like the Eastern elegy ‘Sterile’ or the beautiful mandolins in ‘Fragment #2’); and the occasional unexpected sonic experiments, like e.g. the heavily distorted guitars in the melancholic dirge ‘In a never fading illusion’ or the industrial elements of ‘Just another noise’.
One could argue that this album doesn’t contain as many surprises as Canaan’s previous output, but this doesn’t matter much. If you look for diversity and dynamic excesses, you should look elsewhere anyway. If however, like myself, you have lost your black heart to Canaan’s suffocating melancholy, then this should be as usual business: a blind purchase.
1. The wrong side of things
2. This world of mine
3. Sterile
4. The possible nowheres
5. Fragment # 1
6. Senza una risposta
7. Fragment # 2
8. Fragile
9. Fragment #3
10. In a never fading illusion
11. Just another noise
12. Il rimpianto
13. The unsaid words
14. Fragment #4
15. Never again
16. Nothing left (to share)
Approx. 71 minutes