Review of the Album My Darkness by the Finnish Death Metal Band Before the Dawn

Before the Dawn was a Finnish death metal band with Gothic influences that was started by guitarist and vocalist Tuomas Saukkonen and it is really good! The intro to the album My Darkness is just a start to the album that has some electronic sounds and then we have one of the best songs in the band’s history called Unbreakable. The song is about someone that has a smile that cannot be broken. The end of the song has some excellent guitar work! The next song Seraphim has the other guitarist Panu Willman providing lead vocals. He would also do the vocals for the song called Angel. He also does vocals along with Tuomas on the song Father and Son as the two of them do vocal part exchanges.

1. Intro
2. Unbreakable
3. Seraphim
4. My Darkness
5. Take My Pain
6. Father and Son
7. Alone
8. Angel
9. Undone
10. Human Hatred
11. 4:17 AM

The categorization of Before the Dawn as an entirely Gothic metal band really does not hold much water. The album does have its Gothic influences however there is also a death metal sound to it as well. One needs to only listen to the vocals of Tuomas Saukkonen to hear this in the music.

My Darkness is about someone that notices a dark force settling into his life and he will not share it with anyone. He does not even want to be touched and her wonders how far he will sink into these feelings of despair. These kinds of lyrical themes are very common among Finnish metal bands. Before the Dawn’s musical quality is not impacted negatively by this though.

Take My Pain starts off with some melodic death style guitar that reminds me of Noumena, another Finnish melodic death metal band. The song is about someone that is suffering so much pain and anguish that he wishes that he could have ended his life. He feels like the walls are closing in on him so it is like he is literally dead on the inside. Whether it is coincidence or not, the Swedish death metal band Arch Enemy has a song called Dead Inside. The song Angel is about someone who is feeling the effects of failure. He is lacking confidence which fear is helping to make worse. The next song Alone is a really outstanding song! The song is about someone who is very fearful. He is seeking his savior so that he can stop any future failures. The musical style is similar to the Finnish Gothic rock band Reflexion. When we think the world is going to end, we cry to express our sadness because of that. The song Human Hatred is about living in a world that is suffocating in the emotion of hate. The song tries to make a connection between cloudy weather, darkness, and hatred. Overall, the album My Darkness is good and it does have good, clean vocal parts. The guitar playing is also pretty good. For an album that is not recognized by the majority of heavy metal fans, it is worth checking out and listening to.