Below The Frostline - Slowly Dissolving

Below The Frostline is a doom metal project from musician AP, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The latest release is the full-length album “Slowly Dissolving.”  The project has also released a self-titled debut and an EP.

The album sets firmly on the funeral doom side of the genre and is also highly atmospheric.  The lyrics deal with the interesting concept of “dissolving the need of hope,” by aiming to provide a sense of calm when pitted against the grander schemes of cosmic collapse.  This speaks to me, as I have always tried to accept things as they are and strive to maintain an understanding of “what is..is.”  I’m not always successful but the album’s depth is well worth exploring, whether you agree with its notions or not. 

This doom exactly how I like it:  slow as fuck, low as hell, and heavy as life itself.  It doesn’t get in a hurry, instead letting the atmospheric tendencies.  The songs unfurl themselves like the passing of time: steady but always there, with an inevitable end. “Slowly Dissolving,” and its heavier passages are deep and monolithic but its quiet, atmospheric moments speak are just as heavy, in their own way. It isn’t an overly long album, just under 50 minutes across six songs and the longest of those is just over 10 minutes. 

I like this because it's a good start for newcomers to the genre, without exhausting them.  With that being said, each of the songs uses its time well—and very much so worth repeating because I felt like with each listen, I discovered something new in the darkness that I missed before. 

The production has a real DIY feel to it which is an approach that works very well with this genre—I don’t think I could ask for anything better because I feel this album would lose much of its approach if things were pristine and shiny.  This is funeral doom, and it should sound like it, in all aspects.   

All six songs are good but I’m going to highlight my top three.  The opener is, of course, “Unending Well,” one of those.  It introduces the album well and gives a good overall example of what the listener can expect.  If you like this song, you’ll love the rest of them.  If you don’t then maybe funeral doom isn’t for you.  It’s an esoteric genre and not for everyone but if you know, then you definitely know.

I absolutely love this song’s intro.  It’s eerie yet expansive, deep ambient tones creating a dismal landscape.  The clean tones that form layers over it offer no respite, just a different sort of blackness.  The audio clips/spoken words are more than a little creepy, so they are a welcomed addition.  Around the three-minute mark, the riffs settle in like destruction laying on top of a monument of death.  The vocals are low and pure death growls, so integrated into the songs they are like an instrument themselves.  I like the clean ambience in the later half; it sounds just alien enough without taking me out of the song.  

“Temporary,” is a very interesting song to me.  Yes, it is dark, heavy, and any other adjective I could use to describe funeral doom but there is an odd sort of…peace to it.  Like the title suggests, all things come to an end and I feel this song accepts this fate in a way. The usage of tones and keys in the first minute or so are unique, creating a foundation without any of the intensity from the other elements yet it’s just as suffocating as the guitar.  The drums are also interesting and kept my ears open to all the sights and sounds the song has to offer.  It is never easy to make drums sound atmospheric or keep them viable inside such slow music, but it's pulled off amazingly well here. 

I can’t end the review without talking about the final, and title track, song of the album.  It just might be the darkest and heaviest song of all six, and that is indeed saying something.   The beginning is both downtrodden and yet hopeful, a delicate balance of the understanding of the end of all things. The bass ebbs and flows, heavy throbs that earthquake their way through the foundation while keeping it all focused.  The clean vocals are a great addition to the song, adding to the somber tone with an archaic approach.  

All in all, Below The Frostline’s “Slowly Dissolving,” is a convincing and sterling example of funeral doom.  It’s definitely a solid late year surprise to the genre and shouldn’t be missed by fans of the style.  

Rating: Great