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An Autumn For Crippled Children - Everything review




Bandcamp music player
Reviewer:
8.6

71 users:
8.08
Band: An Autumn For Crippled Children
Album: Everything
Release date: September 2011


01. Forever Never Fails
02. Formlessness
03. Absence Of Contrast
04. We All Fall
05. Nothing/Everything
06. Her Dress As A Poem, Her Death As The Night
07. I Am The Veil
08. Cold Spring
09. Rain

"But the last day of summer never felt so cold, the last day of summer never felt so old" Robert Smith sings in one of the most beautiful songs of the later The Cure; and here it is, the first rain has arrived after a long era of heat. It's a bittersweet feeling to say the least since you have to deal with the very end of a carefree period and all of a sudden "the season of the fall begins", like Lake Of Tears say in one of their most well-known compositions, and all your obligations come to the surface violently. But still, there's always a nostalgic sense omnipresent, not everything is lost, memories still linger. Hell, even the release date of the album, the 1st of September, I'm pretty sure it was intentional.

I was thinking of what to listen to and from my mind passed the idea of cherishing once again the latest effort of An Autumn For Crippled Children, Everything. And I'm really glad because it's Everything I'd like to listen to at this very moment. Last year they offered wholeheartedly to the world their debut album, Lost, a beautiful piece of highly atmospheric black metal with an experimental edge and an utterly melancholic aura. One year later they return with some kind of black metal flirting album which emphasizes way more than its predecessor in the atmospheric factor. The sonic production helps this attempt designate its devouring bittersweet aesthetic, forging a surrounding and ever-expanding wall of sound based on the heavy yet gentle keyboard melodies, the distortion of the guitars and the beautiful chords that float all over the place. Something worth mentioning is the fact that despite the somewhat blurry sense (which is of course something positive) the production leaves to the listener, you can more or less witness every single instrument's presence. Even the bass lines work as another atmosphere-evoking instrument and they're not just keeping the tempo, something always welcome, something you don't find that often.

I didn't mention The Cure for no reason in the beginning, there are intense references within the sound realms of Everything, especially from the Wish era and the incomplete dream essence it possessed. You can also witness some references to Echo And The Bunnymen's Ocean Rain which was a fragile release as well, with all those strings and orchestrations, and there are moments you can find a bit of Interpol in the heart-rending mid-paced chords and an Alcest-meets-Suede feeling at their most introvert moments. The black metal flirting vibe has to be the echoing harsh screams with MXM spitting his heart out, alongside the up tempo drumming and the misty riffing that appears whenever required. I shouldn't skip the fact that some few clean vocals enrich the overall atmosphere and I shouldn't forget to mention that there are moments the piano/keyboards paint on the sound canvas of Everything some utterly creative and quality passages, making the band's attempt more affected.

If you're willing to listen to highly sentimental and intense in its very own way music, then I presume you shouldn't skip checking An Autumn For Crippled Children's latest effort. Even the contrasting and beautiful black and white cover artwork is far too pleasing to the eye not to make your senses lead you to the album's nest. 43 minutes of bittersweet grandeur is Everything you need, now if you'll fly away with the birds in the open horizon or you'll stay and welcome the fall among the leafless branches is always your choice, it always has been, it always will be.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 9
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 8
Production: 9





Written on 31.08.2011 by "It is myself I have never met, whose face is pasted on the underside of my mind."


Comments

Comments: 18   Visited by: 325 users
01.09.2011 - 01:01
Rating: 7
Fat & Sassy!

Read this great review and then checked out a couple of their MySpace songs... and I can def say I may have ANOTHER 2011 favorite here in a few days when I get this album. The couple songs I listen to sound great, and I am absolutely in love with these post-black metal releases this year. <3
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01.09.2011 - 01:31
Parasomnia

Amazing review dude, +1
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01.09.2011 - 05:31
Ag Fox
Angel No More
Wow... need to check them out.
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loves 小巫
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01.09.2011 - 11:00
Windrider
Raureif
The Cure are surely one of the most awesome bands in music history!
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01.09.2011 - 11:56
Merchant of Doom

I found it quite formulaic, monotonous and boring... There are hundreds of bands like AAFCC now.... it might have been quite new when the first release came out, but today? I kind of see (but not much) where you get the Cure references from (can't hear any Echo & B, though), but to me this is just a mega - and shameful to a certain extent - Alcest rip-off. And those shrieks + endless fuzzy guitars + bouncy bass really do my head in. Every time. At the end, the whole album is an indistinguishable mass of flat, reverberating guitar noise. Ah, and I really hate the fake drums (when I can hear them)... As a totally (now) derivative piece of work, 8.6 is far too high. I think it deserves a good 7.
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01.09.2011 - 13:46
Rating: 8
DevilishSong

Its cover reminded me the one which belongs to "Behind the Window" by "Until My Funerals Began" :

thanks for review.
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01.09.2011 - 14:28
Daniell
_爱情_
I haven't heard the album, but the band's name wins in the category of either stupid or pretentious names. Or weird ones
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01.09.2011 - 15:20
X-Ray Rod
Skandino
Written by Daniell on 01.09.2011 at 14:28

I haven't heard the album, but the band's name wins in the category of either stupid or pretentious names. Or weird ones


I'd go with "stupid". I hate it when bands I might enjoy has such awful band names.
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Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29
Like you could kiss my ass
Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
Rod, let me love you.
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02.09.2011 - 05:52
strade

The cover actually looks a lot like The White EP by Agalloch. Will be checking it out.
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My lo-fi synth project: http://luciddreamer.bandcamp.com
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03.09.2011 - 21:50
Rating: 8
INÆRIS

This is a wonderful album. Thanks for reviewing it.
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Still Life, Still Death
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13.10.2011 - 23:49
Uldreth

Am I the only one who actually likes this band's name?
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14.10.2011 - 06:16
KwonVerge
Odysseus
Written by Uldreth on 13.10.2011 at 23:49

Am I the only one who actually likes this band's name?

I'm actually drunk at the moment, but you're not the only one.
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Dec. 30, 1334.

...And the whiskey and wine entered our veins when blood was too weak to carry on.
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14.10.2011 - 06:29
Rating: 7
Troy Killjoy
perfunctionist
Written by KwonVerge on 14.10.2011 at 06:16
I'm actually drunk at the moment, but you're not the only one.

I'm sober and I love it (the band name, I mean).
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"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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27.11.2011 - 02:03
Oaken
Hipster
Great review. And the band name is totally hipster!
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In that case, man is only air as well.
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09.12.2011 - 14:10
Rating: 7
Milena
gloom cookie
This is pretty nice, although at some points I have to try really hard to hear the shrieks.
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7.0 means the album is good
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09.12.2011 - 19:57
Rating: 7
Troy Killjoy
perfunctionist
Written by Milena on 09.12.2011 at 14:10
This is pretty nice, although at some points I have to try really hard to hear the shrieks.

Their debut has a more muffled/fuzzy sound than this.

Which totally works if you ask me. Just read my review.
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"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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09.12.2011 - 20:01
Rating: 7
Milena
gloom cookie
Written by Troy Killjoy on 09.12.2011 at 19:57

Their debut has a more muffled/fuzzy sound than this.

Which totally works if you ask me. Just read my review.

Well I can't say it doesn't make a nice atmosphere, but it was weird at first. But a great first listen. I haven't read the lyrics yet for the fear they might ruin it
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7.0 means the album is good
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03.05.2012 - 23:17
omjaimes
omjaimes
Does anyone have the lyrics?
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