Published: January 28, 2015

“The Isolation Splendour” comes through the tidal waves of tears from Greek gothic funeral doom metal band Immensity. Forming in 2009, it has taken founding band member Andrew Kelekis six years to release Immensity’s first full-length album. It is the only other release from Immensity other than their demo “The Lonely Aquarelle” from 2012. But I wouldn’t feel like I missed out on that EP if I were you because each of the two songs from “The Lonely Aquarelle” is included on “The Isolation Splendour”.

The depressive, drawn out clean vocals are the main reason why I would classify this album as “gothic”. The band may not be the best fit for gothic metal fans, but then again, maybe it is. I think Immensity has everything a gothic metal fan would be looking for. The clean vocals aren’t too flashy or well trained but they have a lot of control to them to really express the anguish and isolation desired for the songs like “Irradiance” and “Eradicate (The Pain of Rememberence)”. I also think the interchangeability between harsh vocals and clean singing doesn’t create to steep a contrast for the audience. I was reminded quite a bit of the band To/Die/For  from the vocals except I thought Louis Hatzimichalis has much more talent and constraint than the singer of To/Die/For does.

Songs like “The Sullen” and “The Isolation Splendour” really show off the grizzled side of Immensity. Those growling vocals are spot on and they are well complemented by the distorted guitars. And the nearly instrumental song “Everlasting Punishment” displays the band’s airtight chemistry between every other musician in an evenly balanced arrangement of drums, guitars, bass guitar and synths.

I highly recommend this album to people who are fans of Pantheist, Insomnium, Be'lakor, Fen, and To/Die/For  at any level. Immensity will have something for you to on “The Isolation Splendour” that you will likely cherish and preserve. Just don’t expect any fast-paced, high octane metal from this album because it is slow but still very dense and heavy. Immensity is just another fabulous band that I’ve listened to come out of Greece. And there’s a lot more where that came from!