Drift Into Black
Dead Suns Under The Forever Moon
Independent Release
2018
Atmospheric Doom Metal/Hard Rock/Gothic Rock
Drift Into Black (DIB) is the brainchild of former Grey Skies Fallen keyboardist Craig Rossi. After leaving the New York melodic death metallers, Rossi put together DIB releasing their debut EP ‘Shadow People’ in 2017 and continues with the mental health theme and the dark sides within it laid down during his time with Grey Skies Fallen. The latest release from DIB, this years ‘Dead Suns Under the Forever Moon’ has Rossi producing a full-length release which follows on from ‘Shadow People’ and with this, ‘Dead Suns…’ continues the concept of anger, revenge, the consequences of going too far that this can bring and the ability to function with the aftermath.
To refer to DIB as a band would be too formal, it is the work of one man and although the album does feature several guest spots, it is a far cry away from the keyboardists work in his previous band and as such should be regarded as so. With DIB, Rossi has taken a completely different path and it works, this ambitious project has no thrashing guitars, endless blast beats or death metal growls. Instead, ‘Dead Suns…’ has a beautiful atmospheric sound which easily blends elements of doom and hard rock with pop sensibilities making this album instantly likable and pleasing. Furthermore, the vocal delivery of Rossi is akin to that of Tobias Forge of Ghost with multi-layered vocals drenched in reverb which would become appealing to any fan of Ghost especially tracks such as ‘Death From Above’, ‘Sifting Through the Dead’ and ‘Home’.
Unfortunately for DIB, the production that Rossi uses, although produced very well, particularly with the dual vocals and cello during ‘Gone But Not Forgotten’, does leave ‘Dead Suns…’ feeling a lot like Ghost demos. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing and the pop sensibilities that Rossi is able to weave into DIB makes ‘Dead Suns…’ exceptionally enjoyable. Furthermore, this album is not all wannabe Ghost and there are some fantastic slow descending riffs which are reminiscent of classic doom bands such as Trouble, St. Vitus and Candlemass as well as newer bands like Vessel of Light.
‘Dead Suns…’ highlights and showcases the raw talent that this musician has without hiding it behind a mask of studio polish and although there is nothing new here and the overall sound has been done plenty of times, but this album gives a sense of integrity, passion and drive that lacks with a lot of releases in this genre.
74/100
Adam McCann
