Vertigo
Hollow Reflection
Transcendence
Black Carbon Snow
Quicksilver Clouds
Hyperion
The Destroying Angel
Halo of Flies
Ophelia

Henri  Koivula - vocals

Jani Heinola - synth
Juha Ylikoski - guitar (ex-Rotten Sound )
Harri Huhtala - bass guitar (ex-Cartilage, ex-Vomiturition )
Jani Martikkala -  drums (Black Dawn, ex-...and Oceans, ex-Enochian Crescent )

The follow-up to 2000's "Binding of the Spirit" was recorded and mixed in three separate sessions between August and November 2003 at Sonic Pump studios in Helsinki.

distributed in Switzerland (CH) by Irascible Distribution

review  by dalia "gryphon_spirit" di giacomo____   

synopsis -   Immense. Impending force and gloomy excellent melodies converge and create a masterpiece

review -  Do you know the excellent "Songs from the Withering" from the Rapture? well "Quicksilver Clouds" from Throes of Dawn is even better. We have the same infinite gloomy emotions and more or less the same way to face music, only Throes of Dawn are more lively and impressive. This is darkness pure, its quintessence.  

Sorrow  despair and depression  deliver together an album highly melodic and harmonic that anyway shows the fierce and impending instinct of a killer.  It is an addictive album built on excellent melodies, on excellent atmospheres. It doesn't matter how much you are in a genre: these gloomy severe and harmonic clouds fill up your sky. If you are into  Death,  you will like this album due to the fact that it is incredibly strong with evil screaming vocals that open  the hell. You are into Doom, ah ok, this is for you. You are into Gothic ? you will be in rapture due to the sad emotional melodies  able to arouse even cosmic visions and minimalist decadent surmises. You are into Power, more slowly but it will charm you too. Quicksilver too definitely proves it is possible to create a  heavy album with elegant synth and piano tones and a great artistic atmosphere. In Throes of Dawn converge the attitude of Before the Dawn, the sensibility of Rapture and the feral vocals  of extreme genres. Without sacrificing any headbanging requirements they indeed crush you down and then raise you in madness. The  alternation between those outstanding rough  dark screaming's (that  sometimes are so similar to growlings) and  clear vocals is amazing. Nice clear vocals, by the way.  Overwhelming mid-paced or uptempo heaviness,  embroideries of refined loops and dedicated harmonic piano and synth deliver a real roller- coaster effect,  a worm -hole vortex. 

Rarely i have  listened to such a combination of guitars and gloomy synth to produce such a subtle aggression and such major ecstatic soundscape...and esthetic. Reading then the lyrics  it is evident a   journey into the soul, moreover some Pink Floyd reminiscences must be not stranger to Throes of Dawn as well as the  introspective part of the Rock of the 80's . 

This album is also a great Metal judge: indeed the more you are  into extreme, the more you can  appreciate this release like a revelation. Simply cause Quicksilver Clouds puts  your essence under pressure. It is here that you really prove if your psyche is strong enough, if your nerves are strong enough. Classical music works a bit in the same way: it is fully useless to ride  Wagnerian Valkyries if you then are not able to suffer from Puccini's disgrace. Avantgarde Music tells us that with "Quicksilver Clouds" the Finns take the music into a totally new and exciting level, well they are right. It is simply true. It is a masterpiece.

All those long dead hours
Frequent time stops
Minutes turn into oblivion
Our voices to mould
Drowned wasps floating
in the chalice of the sweet nectar 
all those beautiful moths eaten by flies
in this bizarre carnival
of a life-lasting funeral



What should i say about the nine tracks?  I don't know which is the best : they attract you soon and , still not satisfied, they go on growing till they become immense in your mind. Immense this is the word. Sidereal,  and fierce,  a pleasure that hurts: opener Vertigo is that way.  Atmosphere from  Amorphis' Tuonela era wander in Transcendence that goes anyway further biting into despair with threatening waves of increasing grasp . Black carbon Snow is a whirlpool of fear and grace. The title- track Quicksilver features screamings suitable in a Black ambience embedded in nostalgic feelings, empowered by a fascinating instrumental part whose scheme  reminds of Hotel California . The Destroying Angel is harmony and sadness pure, with such melodious sounds, messengers of the following evil burst. Halo of Flies has much of Doom cadences of desperation, while Ophelia is like the winter,  a psycho eclipse, depression and solitude, maybe suicide, it is the cold statue under the rain.

There was something you said
Can´t remember your words
Something about dismay
Didn´t know what to say

Rating: 10/10     

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