Autumn - Altitude
Rating
RIYL
The GatheringNightwish
Evanescence
Lacuna Coil
Release Date
02/27/2009
Label
Metal BladeTracklist
1 Paradise Nox2 Skydancer
3 Liquid Under Film Noir
4 Synchro Minds
5 Sulphur Rodents
6 Horizon Line
7 A Minor Dance
8 Closure
9 The Heart Demands
10 Cascade (for a Day)
11 Altitude
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In the vast icy sea of female-fronted Gothic rock, it's usually only the tip of the iceberg that gets seen by the masses. That's a shame because underneath the surface of popular band that have "made it," there is an expansive swell of bands looking to break through to the surface. Autumn are one of the bands clawing to the surface.
Following a similar career path to The Gathering, Autumn started out as a Gothic metal band with hints of death/doom (complete with growls) but have since mellowed with age, vocally and musically, producing a similar symphonic goth rock affair to their fellow countrymen (and women) The Gathering and Within Temptation.
Altitude is the band's fourth long player (second for Metal Blade Records), but it is the first without long-time vocalist Nienke de Jong. Nienke has since been replaced by Marjan Welman of little know band Elister (whom you may have already heard via her guest vocals on the last Ayreon album), but the change of singers is no biggie as you will have a hard time noticing any difference at all between their voices; Marjan's tone is so eerily similar.
While many tracks on Altitude are fairly straightforward goth rock, there are a handful of standouts. “Skydancer”, “Synchro-Minds”, and especially “Cascade (For A Day)” all have radio play potential, but the real highlights of this record are provided by the band's pianist Jan Munnik. Every song is accentuated with his varied and various keywork - from the organ shades of the opening track “Paradise Nox” to the piano tinkling and sinister synths of “Liquid Under Film Noir”, to the Dream Theater-esque keyboard swirls of “The Heart Demands”.
It's true that Autumn are at the lighter side of the Gothic spectrum and are definitely more light rock than heavy metal, but the group do stick their toes into deeper, more aggressive waters. As mentioned above “The Heart Demands” comes off sounding like a Dream Theater song with its spiraling synths and verses of double bass pummeling. A barrage of double bass rolls also closes the album's highlight track, the sinister “A Minor Dance”.
I can only hope that Metal Blade will pull out their wallet and get behind this band with some promotion and maybe a video or two, because otherwise Autumn will surely continue to go on unnoticed, carrying on as mere driftwood among the masses of similar bands.
--Rich Taylor
Comments
Minnesota
Wow. I've never heard of these guys before and from what you say about their album, I really really need to go track this down.
Find me EVERYWHERE:
Milwaukee, WI
This sounds like my kind of stuff. I love Lacuna Coil and recent Within Temptation. Not a fan of the operatic singing but from your review, this sounds like more straight forward vocals. I'll have to check this out.