Band:	While Heaven Wept
Album:	Vast Oceans Lachrymose
Style:	Doom metal
Release date:	November 03, 2009
Guest review by:	Parasomnia

01. The Furthest Shore
02. To Wander The Void
03. Living Sepulchre
04. Vessel
05. Vast Oceans Lachrymose
06. Epilogue

The first time I heard While Heaven Wept, one word crossed my mind: Wow. The way this band manages to write doom metal in a major key blows my mind. This band is incredibly beautiful, yet manages to retain the metal element at the same time.

That said, I'll begin my review of Vast Oceans Lachrymose.

The album starts off with a bang. "The Furthest Shore" is an incredible epic of a song. It's got everything you need for a good metal epic: time signature changes, key changes, acoustic passages, and a monumental outro. Usually it would be a logical move to put a fifteen minute song nearer to the end of the album. What this album has on most other bands is all of the material is INCREDIBLE.

That said, this album does have some short falls. First off, it's very short: 42 minutes, 6 songs. This isn't necessarily a band thing, as the album never gets boring, but after the story was over, I felt like I wanted more. I listened to it for a second and third time, and although that refreshed my need for another journey through Lachrymose, I would have liked to see more material on this album. Also, the songs retain the same formula. Epic intro, groove session, verse, chorus, verse, instrumental, outro. It works very well, though, and manages to build to the album's climax with unbroken flow.

I would like to point out the remarkable musicianship on this album. Not remarkable in the typical way that metal is usually classified (ripping solo's, thirty-second note runs), but remarkable because of the sheer amount of music coming through at all times. They manage to make some of the most epic soundscape's I have ever heard, and it goes to mention that the title track of the album is actually an instrumental.