Band:	Fall Of The Leafe
Album:	Aerolithe
Style:	Gothic metal, Heavy metal
Release date:	August 20, 2007
A review by:	Marcel Hubregtse

01. Opening
02. All The Good Faith
03. Drawing Worry
04. Lithe
05. At A Breath's Pace
06. Graceful Retreat
07. Sink Teeth Here
08. Minor Nuisance
09. Especially By Stealth
10. Look Into Me
11. Closure

Never judge a book by its cover is a well-known saying. And in the case of Fall Of The Leafe that is exactly what one should adhere to. With a bandname such as Fall Of The Leafe, gloomy cover art and Firebox being the label that released Aerolithe I was expecting some top-notch doom metal, but instead got some second division alternative melancholic metal in the vein of new Katatonia and mid period Amorphis. Never having heard of the band I assumed that they are relative newcomers to the metal scene but as it turns out Aerolithe is already FotL's sixth album and they were formed in 1996 but have changed their style considerably over the years having started out by playing melodic death metal.

Okay looks can deceive and therefore can leave me behind more disappointed than actually should be the case. My first impression wasn't a very good one at all. Forty minutes of plodding pedestrian Katatonian Amorphian metal tortured my ears upon first listen. It came across so pedestrian that those forty minutes seemed like two hours to me and left me utterly disappointed. But upon subsequent listens all turned out not to be that bad. Still average to a tad above average at best but not as bad as I experienced it upon first listen. From time to time some nice guitar melodies are employed and the vocals are pretty decent especially on At A Breath's Pace. At A Breath's Pace is neatly put halfway through the album and is a bit different to the other songs which are all interchangeable. It's not that it's played badly it's just that it all sounds the same to me.
The uniformity of the song material makes the forty minutes seem longer than they are, though not as long as the two hours previously experienced. I am sure that there is some sort of market for this kind of music, but I prefer listening to the masters like Katatonia and Amorphis instead.
So, final judgement is: A safely and adequately played album with one highlight, namely, At A Breath's Pace.
There are worse albums in this genre but also way better ones, so, all in all, and average album.