Metal Reviews
Metal Reviews
EVENFALL |
| Evenfall are : Ivan D'alia : Lead & Rhythm Guitars Ansgar Zöschg : Growls, Screams and Whispers Max 'Ade' Boy : Keyboards Roland Wurzer : Bass Moritz Neuner : Drums & Percussion The tracks are : 1. Forbidden Tales (3:37) 2. Black Bloody Roses (3:26) 3. Garden Of Sadness (4:16) 4. Still In The Grey Dying (6:24) 5. Fallen From Grace (4:29) 6. Frozen Misery (2:39) 7. Evenfall (4:10) 8. Sales Of Charon (5:24) 9. Dark Is The Season (5:26) 10. In Between Days (5:28) Sprung from the doom/death band Resurrection in 1992, after numerous line-up changes developed the menacing dark archangel Evenfall. Demons, God, Eroticism, Vampirism, Blood, The invocation of Evil and an obsession with death - the essentials of life, perhaps? Not for all, certainly but these are the favourite topics of the avant-garde dark metal quintet. Evenfall's music takes it's roots in the gloomy sonic assaults of black metal, added to this is a variety of arrangements which also show their appreciation of classical music. Take a listen to the title track 'Still In The Grey Dying', which starts off with a symphonic intro before the heavy guitars come in. The vocals range from lowly growls to screams. 1/3rd of the way through the music fades to piano and whispers before the heavy menacing guitars return. The keyboards are a major factor on this track and are used very effectively indeed. 'Frozen Memory', starts with some nice intricate guitar work and flute sounding keyboards giving this track a 'Celtic' feel. 'Sales of Charon', starts off with some nice atmospheric sounds and guitar, followed by a fast and hypnotic heavy riff, growling vocals and some nice keyboards. The underlying tone to this track is very gloomy and this creates a very eerie feeling to it. 'In Between Days', starts off with some classical inspired piano before in comes a narrated passage, then it's back to more piano. At the same time there's some atmospheric sounds being created in the background and towards the end there's more narration, but this time the vocals have more of a growl to them. Overall, a very nice album and this shows yet again, another band trying to expand the boundaries of black metal and to good effect. However, I'm sure, this album will still have limited appeal, however good the music is and that mainly down to the vocals, being of the lowly growls, which I know does not appeal to a lot of metal fans. But an album I would recommend to all you black metal fans out there. Go out and buy. This CD is released by Century Media Records. USA 1453-a 14th Street #324 Santa Monica, CA 90404 Phone : 310 574 7400. Tel : 310 574 7414 mail@centurymedia.com GERMANY Schaeferstrasse 33a 44147 Dortmund Tel : +49 231 8297 0 Fax : +49 231 8297 101 Email : dortmund@centurymedia.com Website : http://www.centurymedia.com
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Cumbersome Evenfall |
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Some bands reach their prime in stylistic beauty once they start stepping outside of the boundaries within their musical genre and bring in a confident degree of experimentation. Evenfall hailing from Italy are probably the clearest example of this evolution as the band originally got together out of the ashes of doom - death metal act resurreturis and have been in a constant state of metamorphisis ever since. Whereas their first album "Still in the Grey Dying" relied heavily on a rather bombastic mixture of melodic black metal and gothic elements on 'Cumbersome' the band move towards a more modern direction with versatile riffing and a more upfront incorporation of keyboards, loops and sound effects. Also 'Cumbersome' showcases the vocal talents of Roberta Staccuneddu whose relaxed and angelic style work in direct contrast to Ansgar Zoschg's tortured delivery. The effect is quite remarkable adding a totally different direction to each of the ten songs on offer and in doing so makes 'Cumbersome' an album that will appeal to fans of atmospheric black metal as well as those with a more gothic leaning. As for the songs themselves well, "Front Loadar", "Etre Dos Tierras" and "In Absentia Christi" all stand out, with top honours going to the slightly more aggressive "Over Cast Sky", but to be frank all of the songs featured offer so much variety and energy that probably the best way to listen to 'Cumbersome' is as a whole as it has one of those rare must play again qualities that is becoming increasingly difficult to find these days. This CD is released by Century
Media Records. Review by Andy Wagstaff
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