Three years after their long distance debut, titled The Bearer Of All Storms, the Romanian Descend Into Despair come back with their melodic and atmospheric funeral death doom. Speaking of the previous work, at the time of its release I was perplexed about some choices made by the guys from Cluj-Napoca, in particular the one of pouring on disc an exorbitant amount of material, ending up diluting what good had been possible to find between the lines of a songwriting still relatively immature: well, the value of the new album shows in the best way that, when there is talent, you just have to give time for it to manifest itself fully. Synaptic Veil is in fact a varied and mature work, in which the meanders of the most extreme and at the same time atmospheric doom are explored without any hesitation but with the right dosages, passing from more ethereal moments to others imbued with inescapable pain, thanks to a precious guitar work, enhanced by the studio work entrusted to the hands of the best known Romanian musician in the field, namely Daniel Neagoe (Eye Of Solitude, Clouds). The passage to the microphone of Xander (who as a guitarist has lent his services on the last two albums of Dehà/Neagoe duo Deos, just to close the circle) is a further and decisive step forward, since his growl is almost up to that of his compatriot and even the clean vocals are convincing without ever appearing forced. With all these ingredients, Synaptic Veil turns out to be a superb album, which should be processed with the right patience to allow the listener to be annihilated by the aching beauty of songs like Alone With My Thoughts and Demise, with the latter being the real fulcrum of the work by virtue of almost a quarter of an hour in which Descend Into Despair express the state of the art of the genre, building a monument of rare intensity and melancholic abandonment. Acoustic moments, choral cues and beautiful guitar melodies, which often crescendo in the final part of the songs, represent in this the ideal for the fan of the genre that will not be disappointed even by the depth of the lyrics, all by the vocalist and already brilliant in The Bearer Of All Storms, another strength of the band in their attempt to dissect the complexities and contradictions of the human psyche. Synaptic Veil consecrates Descend Into Despair as a new and shining reality, expression of a Romanian underground metal movement swarming with excellent bands.

2017 – Loud Rage Music