Canaan - The Unsaid Words
Eibon Records – CAN060 – 27/02/06
By Sam Brokenshaw
This band instantly strike me as one centered around subtle nuances, as is displayed in the tasteful use of synth parts and the understated vocals. Nothing jumps out as flashy or seems to fight for the listeners attention, rather everything blends together in a rather pleasing manner. To break it down to the bare bones, the songs on offer are based around mournful vocals and swirling, spacey guitar lines that recall such Gothic rock luminaries as
Fields of the Nephilim and their kin.
Canaan succeed in bringing other elements to the table in addition to this though, with dark ambient sections and
Raison D'Etre styled walls of dark plain chant, infusing a deep sense of loss and melancholy. When compared to other bands in the doom genre
Canaan might at first appear to be somewhat lightweight, not being as dense as say, an
Esoteric or whichever other band you care to think of. However, this sparsity works for, rather than against, the material on offer here. As Stephen O'Malley is often quoted as saying, the space between the notes is of paramount importance in doom metal as a genre,
Canaan use a keen sense of this method to guide the composistions on this album, leaving plenty of epic and cold spaces to punctuate the music.
"
The Unsaid Words" is overall a very spacious affair, vast reverb drenched textures compete with plainly sung and mournful vocal lines. This album is very slow and graceful and in that way, will possibly not be for everyone, but anyone with a big interest in the doom/melancholy rock genre as a whole will probably enjoy this in the extreme. The variation in material is quite impressive, with many different instruments popping up and serving various roles within the great whole. Now this may remind one of material like
Kayo Dot, but converse to my opinion of that band, here it is never cluttered and never seems like an exercise in being as avant garde as possible at the expense of actually being musically adept. What "
The Unsaid Words" lacks in sheer muscle and visceral thrills, it more than makes up in sheer scope and epic tendencies, providing the kind of soundtrack that you'd imagine would work when all your friends and loved ones die around you. All joking aside, this is an accomplished album from a band that specialise in the mournful, the ornate and the epic, whilst all the while painting in subtle colours and never stepping over the line into gaudiness and self parody.
7.5/10
UM’s Review Rating Scale
Canaan Official Website
Eibon Records Official Website
