Fall came. Leaves have fallen. Sheet of ice over a lake. Cold breeze on facade. Soon, the autumn dies and winter will take over. But before that, let's inspect Finnish band Autumn Verses' sole album. These melodic black metallers were signed by Solistitium Records after their debut 1994 demo 'Legions to Come'. The full-lengther 'Tunes of Disconsolation' came out in 1997 in limited run of 1000 CDs, and some time after the release, the band and the label had a disagreement. Thus, in 2000 the band was renamed as The Dead Beginners. Who are already gone, after one album...
...But that is very much a different story, though. Here, these Finns sound like they could have been inspired by several melodic black metal bands; perhaps by Norwegian acts such as Borknagar (most easily named as AV's not-so-distant cousin, I think), Covenant and Emperor; from Finland by Thy Serpent and Throes of Dawn (check out the similaritis between cover artwork here and ToD's debut album band picture, too). That's just speculation, of course, but similarities with Autumn Verses and these bands are more than simply superficial and incoherent.
The music is not be quite as magickal and occult as the cover photography, though. However, there certainly are melodies that summon vibes of magical and otherworldly, together with naturistic and earthly, and of course, as it was a Finnish band, melancholic. And let's not forget epic and universal. AV can get on berserker-mode with heavy-handed guitar riffings, blast beats and nasty demonic raven vocal attack, but they also can get rueful with sound synthesizer melodies, clean vocals and slower tempos.
The guitars often have expressive and shifty tremolo picking similar to Borknagar. Yes, it's more about vivid manifestation rather than aggressiveness. And surely Nordic metal must have some acoustic bits. The synthesizer work varies from piano emulation to lucid melodies. The keyboards and guitars together create some rather intricate sounds, and are almost equally present. The drums are thunderous; loud and reverberant. Actually, mostly everything on this album is somehow echoing, making it feel ethereal. Like a winter night sky filled with northern lights. The songs include loads of different parts, and sometimes true will to take a journey is required, so that any possible red thread won't be lost right at a start. Tempos swiftly switch from fast galloping to serene pondering...
The album is worthy hoard for any fan of any band mentioned here. It might never fully reveal its secret to a listener. I will still continue to dig into it in the future, perhaps to unearth more of its magick. I hope I will find out more of it later...
"And Dark Harbours of their gentle shores
Will always hold room for one more
By the time you too shall know
That the journey back is too long"
Rating: 7+ (out of 10) ratings explained
Reviewed by Lane
11/28/2019 20:02
