Band:	An Autumn
Album:	The Long Goodbye
Style:	Post-rock, Shoegaze, Atmospheric black metal
Release date:	February 23, 2015
A review by:	tea[m]ster

01. The Long Goodbye
02. Converging Towards The Light
03. A New Form Of Stillnes
04. Only Skin
05. When Night Leaves Again
06. She's Drawning Mountains
07. Endless Skies
08. Gleam
09. The Sleep Of Rust

Guess which made up metal genre term I'm not going to mention once?

In 2013, I first discovered An Autumn For Crippled Children via their outstanding release Try Not To Destroy Everything You Love. They went toe to toe with everyone's new, favorite, juicy blackgaze fad of the moment Deafheaven's, Sunbather. Personally I feel Try Not To Destroy Everything You Love is a much better album than Sunbather but I digress. An Autumn For Crippled Children truly have one of the more unique sounds of any metalgaze band today and their new album, The Long Goodbye, uses the same formula from their last release but with a tad bit of enhancement.

The essense of The Long Goodbye is introvertive, ethereal compositions accompanied with surprisingly infectious melodies bluntly draped around a misty, hazy chassis. The songs are equally joyful and melancholic at the same time because of the harsh vocals of black metal and powerful, distorted layered guitars adapting extremely well with heavenly sounding synthesizers/electronics and simple but driving percussion. The contrast between light and dark is quite remarkable and somehow the packaging of all the musical elements is harmonious. Thorough listenings will unveil a hybrid playstyle consisting of black metal, post metal, ambient and shoegaze. Brooding, dreamy melodies create beautiful and lush sensations while the sandy and grainy lo-fi production indulges dynamic time changes done in a kind of luminous way.

The enhancements I spoke of earlier on The Long Goodbye aren't really all that mind-blowing but minor upgrades. First, the production is better; MXM's vocals are really buried beneath the wall of noise on their previous record. This time, his vocals are more articulated, gently layered below the forceful sound that's still emotional yet coherent. Lastly, as good as Try Not To Destroy Everything You Love is, the songs are a bit chaotic. The song writing on The Long Goodbye has improved to a point where it seems there is a purposeful stride within all of the tracks; a point A to point B basic mechanic. Predictions can be made when a chorus will appear or when a bridge or tempo change is in order. This structural integrity gives all the songs consequence, an easier way to remember each song. In summary, do I like this album better then the last? I would say yes.

I firmly believe An Autumn For Crippled Children are one of the bands at the apex of the foggy, icy covered black-gazed mountain top. With The Long Goodbye, they have elevated their game to the highest level by dumbing down their approach. A simple but effective maneuver, when euphoric atmosphere and blinding aura are smoothly ingested without much ado, music of this kind has fulfilled its purpose.

And I didn't even mention the term once...