Fields of the Nephilim - Elizium

 

The third album from Fields of the Nephilim, released in 1990, could be viewed as a departure from, or an evolution of the band’s sound.  After a brief intro (Dead But Dreaming), we get For Her Light, a standard issue goth track, though here Carl McCoy actually sings more than gargling with broken glass.  At the Gates of Silent Memory follows seamlessly, and is quite portentous.  Slow and doomy.  This is rounded off with (Paradise Regained) which sparks into life.  Much of the album is sequenced like one long track. 

Submission opens with a low bassline and a faint keyboard line.  Between this and  McCoy’s intonation “where have I been” you are reminded of Joy Division’s Decades, though you also get squalling guitars in the midsection.  It’s a decent track, though it’s a few minutes longer than it needs to be. Sumerland (What Dreams May Come) has intricate gothy guitar work, building up deliberately to great effect for an entire 11 minutes.  The final two tracks are the closest songs to Pink Floyd that McCoy and co released.  Wail of Sumer plods like mid 70s Floyd, leading into And There Will Your Heart Be Also, another long, seven minute plus song.  This one has a particularly haunting melody, probably the most emotional on the album.

It’s a kind of long moody album with not much variety, tracks all kind of evolve from each other.  Not a bad thing by any means, it’s just different from its predecesssors.  There are fewer peaks and standouts and thus is a bit harder to get into than Dawnrazor or the Nephilim.

Fields of the Nephilim - The Nephilim

On Fields of the Nephilim's second album, released in 1988, if anything they dialled UP the drama, from their debut.  Although there were fewer uptempo songs this time around, the drop in tempo wasn't matched with a drop in intensity. 

It opens with a true epic, the seven-minute Endemoniada.  The layered guitars build up slowly, picking out swirling arpeggios, then 4 minutes in the pace quickens to introduce Carl McCoy's low growl.  It’s a great introduction to the album and it's followed up by the moody atmospheres of The Watchman which builds gradually to pounding intensity.  After the breakneck speed goth 'Ace of Spades' of Phobia, the band’s hit follows, Moonchild.  The song has a classic gothy riff, and actually crashed into the charts back in 1988.  The lyrics are strange enough but the track has an excellent doomy atmosphere.  And it's followed by another fast belter in Chord of Souls.

So what of the slower material?  Celebrate represents a complete departure.  McCoy sings (sings!) rather than growls over a moody bassline and very little else.  Shades of Joy Division.  Snatches of spooky chants and sinister organ introduces Love Under Will, a slow, lengthy epic with an excellent riff, some fine guitar playing here.  At times it's hard not to think of the Sisters of Mercy, though that's not such a bad thing.  The pacing is excellent with dramatic pauses in the instrumentation as McCoy sings "I'll send my child my last goodbye ".

There's still time for another epic with the final track, the almost 10 minute Last Exit for the Lost.  It builds very slowly on sparse, ringing guitars as McCoy groans gloriously "this could be my last regress".  The song simmers for six minutes or so before speeding up dramatically, McCoy losing it to great effect as he sings "we're getting closer.... last exit for the lost!" with real passion and feeling.  It's an incredible ending to the album, what is probably the band’s most representative collection of songs.

 

Fields of the Nephilim - Dawnrazor

 

The real question is: is it ok for a grown man to be listening to Fields of the Nephilim, western-channeling, flour dusted anachronistic rockers??  100% yes.  This stuff is certainly a throwback to the 'golden age of goth' in the late 80s, a time when the Sisters of Mercy, Mission, Cure and the Cult all featured in the charts of the time.  

This is the band's debut album, released in 1987.  It starts with no small amount of drama with a version of Ennio Morricone's The Harmonica Man, before kicking in with goth anthem Slow Kill.  Not a heavy track as such, guitars jangle rather than slam as singer Carl McCoy wails out the lyrics.  The guitars are an almost intoxicating mix of arpeggio after arpeggio.  Volcano (Mr Jealousy Has Returned) follows in a similar vein, another pacy, atmospheric anthem with McCoy's gargled vocals roaring "yearning yearning yearning".    

The moody plod of Vet for the Insane provides a change of pace.  Here growling guitars are added to the jangle before the tracks is rounded off with more Morricone-esque flourishes.  Dust and Reanimator follow, two power anthems.  Far from being doom and gloom they are pretty anthemic and uplifting.  If it's drama you want look no further than the thrilling guitar swells of the penultimate title track. 

This sort of stuff was pretty popular at the time and it's easy to forget how enjoyable it is to listen to.