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Band: Soror Dolorosa
Album title: No More Heroes
Release date: CD - 15 February 2013, LP - 27 August 2013
Label: Beneath Grey Skies/Northern Silence Productions
Tracklisting:
01. Silversquare
02. Sound & Death
03. Dany
04. The Figure Of The Night
05. Hologram
06. Motherland
07. Wormhole
08. A Dead Yesterday
09. Exodus
It would be really a crime if this album won't get its review on our website, although it was released back in January this year and most of you know these songs off the cuff, I had to write some words as No More Heroes is certainly one of those albums that must be counted as "cult" albums and in my opinion is one of the best releases in last few years.
No More Heroes is the second full lenght for the band and also a new era for this French combo which almost left behind their initial post-punk influences and settled their sound in something extravagant, maybe is gothic rock, but at the same time is far away of beign just that. I can't say that Soror Dolorosa did something original from all the aspects, but at the same time I must say that they did something more than unique.
In their new sound you can hear much more matured song structures than in the past, much more emotion and atmosphere, there is warmth and magic. Nine songs on No More Heroes range from more upbeat, still melancholic and amazingly catchy songs that have some connections with rock elements similar to more calm side of The Cult, The Sisters Of Mercy, Christian Death and you can find also something that made Héroes Del Silencio so special band back then, just listen to the opener "Silver Square" or to "The Figure Of The Night" and you can't skip great gloomy guitars in rocking "A Dead Yesterday". There are plenty of magical catchy dark pop elements that sound so fantastic and bring back the memories to the best things that The Mission ever did, or perhaps someone could notice that The Cure and their sense to make special melancholic feeling is present in "Sound & Death" or in extravagant and mesmerizing last song up here "Exodus", where some beautiful piano touches and one of a kind second part of the song sounds so epic that there are no words to describe it. Maybe even a touch of modern Katatonia melancholy and gloominess is present in here.
There is also darker and even more gloomy side of Soror Dolorosa and is brought forward in all its splendour in "Hologram" or "Wormhole", where the ambiance created can be compared with the most atmospheric things that Fields Of The Nephilim ever did. But please, don't be misguided by the names that I'm mentioning as Soror Dolorosa do things their own way. It's also impossible to point out at just one song as each one has its own special moments. For instance I find all the songs put together as one flowing structure that must be consumed as an entirety. The guitar job is fantastic, great typical gothic rock elements blend so well together with more typical rock based riffs, sparkling passages and captivating melancholic lines, always keeping the melody to guide the songs. Then Andy Julia's vocals..., dynamic, emotional, breathtaking, yet he brings all needed warmth and passion in front.
Great compositions gain even more from impeccable production that sometimes smell a bit vintage and together with unusual cover artwork brings the passion of 80s. No More Heroes is an album that must be in your collection if it isn't already there, because I'm sure and it will be rather presumptuous from me to say that after ten or twenty years from now we will be talking about this one the same things as we say now of legendary albums like The Nephilim, First And Last And Always or... you name it.
Review written by: T.V.
Rating: 10/10
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