Metal Reviews

Damnationis - The Fallen Princess – Album Review – Conservative Black / Death Metal from Metz, France

Today, I am reviewing the debut studio album "The Fallen Princess" by Damnationis, an old-school black/death metal band from Metz, France, released in 2023.

DAMNATIONIS - The Fallen Princess (Official Audio)

On the fifth day of listening to "The Fallen Princess" album, I must say it's one of the narrowest musical concepts I've come across lately. It's why I chose to call it "conservative" in the title. The album is exactly what it aimed for: being traditional. The album's general concept encompasses the most significant characteristics of death and black metal, such as raw energy, ugliness, aggressiveness, attitude, and technicality. I presume it wasn't meant to have any beauty in it, rather keeping it narrow, real, and nostalgic. Damnationis' ideas fit well into this narrow concept and supported it with the 2000s/modern metal sound in its instrumentation.

The musical part of the work strikes a familiar balance between becoming too simple or too progressive. The instrumentation typically provides the main theme in each composition, with vocals just accompanying the entire journey with an iconic black metal vocal personality. He doesn't change his attitude nor temper, doing what he does best with his recognizable black metal character in his style. His contribution to the music is quite impressive and can easily replace the vocalist of Dimmu Borgir. Technically, the album takes an orthodox approach in its design and production as well, objectively resulting in a good-sounding old-school death/black metal album with satisfying industry standards in its foundation.

Damnationis, band photoCredit: Unknown

On the other hand, I must admit that there are more than a few reasons why the album didn't resonate with me in the end. Firstly, the musical concept didn't speak to me at all. I was disappointed that I couldn't hear anything visionary, new, or distinguishing to consider it an enjoyable experience. Secondly, Damnationis' music has all the Scandinavian black/death metal influences, which I believe comes together with the early black metal. However, I was hoping to hear a bit more of the French interpretation of these influences. I have been listening to many French death metal bands lately, including Gojira, Celeste, In Arkadia, and unfortunately, The Fallen Princess didn't measure up to this group. I was unimpressed by the work in its entirety, including the message, storytelling, visuals, music, and vision. It's too traditional and only speaks to people with such specific musical tastes.

In conclusion, "The Fallen Princess" is a good-sounding album with a conventional musical concept and 2000s metal sound character, blending early black metal vocals with death metal instrumentation. Thank you for your time and attention, and I hope you enjoyed the review.

Damnationis, The Fallen Princess (2023) Album Front Cover ArtworkMixed and Mastered by Havoc Studio.Artwork collaboration with Damian Augustyniak from GuzikArt.