Being faced with another laborious heat wave I currently feel great kinship and commiseration with Jordanian/UAE melodic doom/death-dealers Falling Leaves, who come ironically fresh and frosty off a 13-year hiatus with the first single off their imminent return The Silence That Binds Us.
Clearly, these merchants of the morose have had their nose to the doomstone over the past decade and change: the level of sophistication and polish compared to 2012's Mournful Cry of a Dying Dun rises like a mirage from the desert sands, and is poised to put them firmly on the melodic death-doom map. Sole remaining founding member Ala’a Swalha has bolstered the band's ranks with new talent for this album, which features new members Ali M.on bass, Bashar Haroun on vocals and Fadi Stanboulleh on guitars. Notably, the album also boasts session work by drummer Fabio Alessandrini (Bonfire, Annihilator), keyboards by Ariel Perchuk and, perhaps most notably, vocalist and master of morosity Paul Kuhr (November’s Doom).
On lead single “We Are Alone”, Falling Leaves show their atmospheric side, enveloping the listener in a warm blanket of comfortable sulk and suffocation. Featuring plenty of drama and bleak spoken-word like delivery, coupled with melancholic guitar work and icy keys and synths, the track projects a Finnish midwinter through a desert prism and brings to mind the aforementioned November’s Doom, giving nods to Counting Hours, tinges of Kaunis Kuolematon and slivers of Draconian while exhibiting a Tuomas Saukkonen-like knack for melodic melancholia.
According to the band, the track features as “A central thematic pillar of the album, this track captures the existential loneliness we all face, even when surrounded by others. It’s about how dreams fade and how silence grows louder in the absence of connection. The chorus cries out against the coldness of the world, where voices are lost, and hope barely flickers.” On the full album—which is out September 5th—expect them to also show their teeth to a satisfying extent and offer a satisfying amount of gloomy grandeur and rousing riff-craft.