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MY SILENT WAKE - The Anatomy Of Melancholy (DoCD 2007)
Doom-Death
Why should I beat about the bush? - This album belongs to the increasingly rare species of those with which EVERYTHING is right! Rage and emotional sensibility join hands and take a ride on the roller coaster of life ... before arriving at the conclusion that they are never complete without one another. The music serves to underline this with appropriate ambivalence.
Following the usual keyboard introduction, solemnly performed by Kate Hamilton, mastermind Ian Arkley does not hesitate to assail us with well-known questions. "The Dying Things We're Living For" succeeds in shifting the general mood into comfortingly dark regions of the mind:
"And when at last we breathe our final breath
And when at last we're summoned unto death
Is there an open door?
Will there be any more?
What will remain from all these dying things we're
living for?"
For me, this song alone would be enough for the night. However, already addicted, I find myself forced to listen on. "Served" strikes the same chord while letting hope shoot forth:
"... deep down - inside, we yearn to begin again
Leave your fears behind
Cast your sorrow aside
Come close to me
As the walls fall away as the gates open wide"
The forth track, "Heretic", is another such broadside attack, and again I'll just let some lines from the lyrics speak for me:
"I'm lost within the fields of emptiness
So blind, paralysed
Don't leave me here to die"
Since this album practically consists of nothing but climaxes, I really do not know what to write about "Into Silence". The song strikes me deep within my soul, and I have no idea how often I've been listening to it. Whatever you might call something higher than a highlight, that's what "Into Silence" is. The following part is absolutely brilliant:
"Time keeps moving on
Yesterday is lost forever
Those precious dreams forgone
It leaves you cold inside ...
No refuge in my memories
Today, tomorrow is everything ... "
And again, it is the antithesis of despair and hope that is simply fascinating. The musical setting is definite and irrevocable. And it's more than a stroke of genius when the melancholy funeral procession, padded with a train of doom, is stirred up with a subtly measured dose of black metal.
"Wobe" lingers in one's memory as a disturbing interlude before "Sullen Earth" sets up another monument for eternity - almost a grand finale.
"... dust to dust again".
All that remains is a "Sturm". The home stretch is covered speedily and yet in an almost measured way... but albums like this do not end. Anyway, not really...
The second volume focuses on the essential. Acoustic settings seem to herald the end of the world. Complete with slight folk elements, and accompanied by mandolin, cello, flute, clarinet, hypnotic keyboards and profound vocals, the anatomy of melancholy is brought a whole lot closer.
Apart from VIRGIN BLACK's "Requiem - mezzo forte", this is my album of the year 2007.
In conclusion, doom-death with an over-width, including an introverted encore.
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12++/12 points
Thomas Lawall - October 2007
(Translation: Patrick Maiwald -www.innenseiten.de-)
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Tracklist:
First Volume:
1. Finio
2. The Dying Things We're Living For
3. Severed
4. Heretic
5. Into Silence
6. Wobe
7. Sullen Earth
8. Sturm
Last Volume:
1. The Anatomy of Melancholy
2. Revolution
3. In The Glow Of The Autumn Sun
4. Look Beyond The Flesh,
Look Beyond The Mind
5. Dying
6. Oceans Of Time
7. A Photograph
8. To Bid Farewell
9. Storm
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Line-Up:
Ian Arkley: Lead vocals, lead and rhythm guitars, acoustic and classical guitars, ebow
Andi Lee: Bass (First Volume), mandolin, acoustic and classical guitars, rhythm guitar, ebow, lead vocals (Dying)
Jasen Whyte: Drums, percussion, background vocals, lead vocals (parts of Into Silence and Sullen Earth)
Kate Hamilton: Keyboards, cello, piano, recorder, vocals, clarinet, live bass
Alan Southorn: Bass (Last Volume)
www.mysilentwake.co.uk
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