Majestic Downfall - Waters Of Fate (CD)

Review
Breathing the Core

1. VEINS:

The main riff of Veins is actually the first riff I wrote for the new album. If I remember correctly it came to life in December of 2016 when I was on holiday with my family in Ixtapa, Mexico, not a very cold place I should say, specially since it is a beach very near Acapulco. The rest of the song took shape in the coming 2 months and after getting the feel for it, I knew this album was going to be different than “When Dead…”.

A funny fact is that I never like to play songs live before they are released, but Veins was and maybe will be the only one to break that idea since we presented it live in a festival 2 months prior to its release on December 7 th of this year.

2. WATERS OF FATE:

Waters of Fate was the 3 rd song written for the album. I wanted something very heavy and dreamy at the same time that also had a mix of Doom/Death combined with Funeral Doom and some traditional Doom and I think it succeeded.

Another interesting thing about Waters of Fate is that I had in my head for around 2 months this struggle between opening the new album with Veins or this one and in the end Veins got the opener slot for the album.

3. CONTAGIOUS SYMMETRY:

Contagious Symmetry is the song that went through more changes to take its final shape. After I had written it and had sent it to the others for them to learn it for the recording sessions, we gathered at my place for 2 days to rehearse. Suddenly DAH, one of our guitar players said, hey let´s try adding this part here and so we tried it and sounded cool. The part that DAH wrote for the song is the beginning of it where the acoustics take place and that latter in the song appear again. I have to say that this idea changed the song completely in terms of feel and I am happy we explored this idea. I also have to say that no one before had written anything on a Majestic Downfall album besides me and this was the first time that I took this road. Glad I did.

I could also add that this song has the darkest and the dreamier moments of the album. Some people have even said to me that it has a Pink Floyd vibe!!! I guess it really does, specially in the middle slower section.

4. SPORE:

I live 2 hours away from where the other guys of the band live, so the 4 of us meet once a month to rehearse and they 3 get together once a week to give it a go. One day DAH again told me to check my Messenger, that he had sent me a file and that file was the main riff of this song. I heard it and said, “wow, it sounds amazing”, so in this 2 day-rehearsal prior to recording gathering Alfonso (drummer), DAH and me, got together to give it shape and make it an instrumental in the album. I have to say that this turned out to be the 2 nd song I have not written 100% for the band and once again I am glad it happened. In a moment I thought about this one opening the album since it works really well as an intro, but the idea got thrown to the trash soon after.

5. COLLAPSED PITCH BLACK:

For sure this is the song I am most surprised with in the whole album. I don´t mean it is the best one at all, but I never expected it to turn out this killer. It was a really cool challenge to finish it and the end result is great. It is heavy as fuck, monolithic and in the end it just takes you to a magic landscape that is well deserved after so much heaviness and darkness.

I had never done such a dark song and it felt great to do so. I guess in the future I may experiment more with this, but of course always surrounded by the Majestic Downfall treat! I remember listening to the Morgion demos when doing this song and at least in atmosphere it influenced me.

6. WATERS OF FAITH (BONUS TRACK FOR ASIA/EUROPE):

Ok, this one is also a very new one for me. One day DAH, who I have to say loves neo-folk, pop, ambient and other types of music that have nothing to do with me jajaja, called me and said, “Hey Jacobo, I have this idea of doing an interpretation of your music but in a very different way. We can use it as a bonus track”. At first I didn´t know what to expect since I am very skeptical about those sounds and experiments but decided to give it a go. 2 days later I got DAH´s interpretation of my music in this weird, slow, fucked up keyboard laden noise and decided to go forth with it. I was missing something still, it felt somehow static and I hate that type of feeling in music so I decided to add some vocals and passages throughout the song. It was a challenge since I had never sung in clean voice and guttural would not work here so I had to try it. It turned out really great. A funny fact is that in the middle section where you hear girls screaming, they are my daughters and when they where listening to the song prior to recording, the were scared as fuck

Author: Screamer

Review
Twilight
8/10
07.12.2018

Düster. Düsterer. MAJESTIC DOWNFALL. Drei Jahre nach dem letzten Longplayer „...When Dead“ nimmt uns Mastermind Mr. Jacko, der ansonsten auch mit ZOMBIEFICATION unterwegs ist, wieder mit auf eine Reise in die unendlichen Death-Doom-Gefilde.

Im Gegensatz zu den Vorgängerwerken ist „Waters Of Fate“ noch eine Spur düsterer, schwermütiger und epischer geworden. Martialische Heavyness trifft auf melodische Wehmütigkeit, die für eine ganz besondere Atmosphäre sorgt. Obligatorisch sind in diesem Zusammenhang die tiefen Growls, die sich mitunter mit leidenschaftlich leidenden, sich bisweilen leicht überschlagenden Vocals abwechseln. So sieht musikalisch Leiden aus.

Druckvolle Riffs sorgen aber immer wieder auch für ein Gefühl der Hoffnung, aber im Endeffekt bedeutet Leben Leiden. Und das wird hier musikalisch bestens umgesetzt, denn der Hörer wird eindrucksvoll auf eine wahre Achterbahnfahrt der Gefühle mitgenommen, inklusive souliger Gitarrensoli. Bestens zu beobachten in dem Track 'Collapsed Pitch Black'. Hammer.

Richtig niederschmetternd und traurig wird es in dem einen Trauerrequiem gleichenden 'Waters Of Faith', das instrumental reduziert klavierbestimmt mit kakophonen, disharmonischen und narrativen Einschlägen beginnt und sich dann in einer epischer, unendlich anmutende, atmosphärische Stimmung verliert und somit im herkömmlichen Sinne auch nichts mehr mit Metal zu tun hat.

'Conscious Symmetry' besticht darüber hinaus durch seine THE-CUREigen melancholischen Anleihen, während der Opener 'Veins' mit einer herrlich martialischen und infernalen, mitunter auch eingängigen Attitüde daherkommt, die einen sofort alles um einen herum vergessen lässt. Der Titeltrack 'Waters Of Fate' schließlich erinnert bei seinem Leitmotiv ein wenig an MY DYING BRIDE und vermag durch seine doomige Entschleunigung eine überaus starke Intensität und Tiefe zu entwickeln, die sich phasenweise aber auch in einen fast schon schwarzmetallischen Furor steigern kann. Weltklasse!

Fazit: Früher war auf vieles noch Verlass. Das ist in dieser wirtschafts- und kompetenzorientierten Zeit leider fast vollkommen verloren gegangen. Aber die Death-Doomer von MAJESTIC DOWNFALL bleiben ein Fels in der Brandung und legen auch mit „Waters Of Fate“ einen Longplayer vor, in dem man sich nicht nur verlieren kann, sondern der auch durch seine düstere Intensität, durch seine schwermütige Infernalität und durch seine epische Martialität wieder mehr als zu überzeugen vermag. Deathiger Doom-Metal, wie er sein sollte!

Author: Kersten Lison