October Falls | ‘A Collapse Of Faith’

I remember listening to Agalloch’s ‘The Grey’ EP and thinking: fuck. What have they DONE.

How do you take one of the best, most atmospheric and meaningful bands of the noughties and turn them to boring turd like this?

Not content, they confirmed their creative fossilisation with ‘Ashes Against The Grain.’ Game over.

Until, that was, their heir apparent came in the dainty form of Alcest. Phew. Back to the forests for a walk and a wee cry.

It’s been quite a while since this style of music, that used to be a staple of the Napalm, Holy and Prophecy rosters, has had the cred it once did.

Empyrium still have yet to really find a successor. Gloomy Finns (are there any others?) October Falls however are doing an incredible job of picking up where they left off.

This cd literally drips pine sap. Every pastoral extreme metal album you’ve ever loved is recalled at some point or other in it. It’s sad, longing, bombastic without the need to resort to hammed up keyboards, and altogether highly evocative.

Fans of bands as diverse as Dornenreich, Summoning, Tenhi, ‘Orchid’ period Opeth, Drudkh and Amorphis will lap up the acoustic pickings and stirring heavy chords. There’s even elements of Saturnus here and there.

Better still, thunderous toms add a sense of occasion and might that balances against its general melancholy, adding a brilliant anger to it. Anger - it’s an expression that doesn’t usually go with the windswept musings of many artists within this style. It’s a fantastic addition.

The three long tracks that make up this album are well written, and so sustain their overbearing size. It’s much better than their last. So perhaps not one to enjoy during the summer months, this should be a standard as the autumn comes in.

3.8 / 5 - Earl Grey ::: 26/07/10