Band:	While Heaven Wept
Album:	Suspended At Aphelion
Style:	Progressive power metal
Release date:	October 2014

01. Introspectus
02. Icarus And I
03. Ardor
04. Heartburst
05. Indifference Turned Paralysis
06. The Memory Of Bleeding
07. Souls In Permafrost
08. Searching The Stars
09. Reminiscence Of Strangers
10. Lifelines Lost
11. Retrospectus

The progressive aspirations of While Heaven Wept have taken them a long way from the doom of Vast Oceans Lachrymose, and in a matter of five years they've made a dramatic change of stylistic face. Suspended At Aphelion continues the band's uplifting departure from their point of origin with a lighter sound and brisker delivery that dissolves the doom element entirely.

Fear Of Infinity retained its fair share of doom metal tones and slower tempos, albeit in compositions of a heightened melodiousness, the latter cast across this new record in a more progressive light in terms of both the general keyboard texturing as well as the song structures. The guitar patterns are layered more intricately and with an emphasis on vocal arrangements and attempted classical ornamentation with the use of prominent strings in the introductory and concluding instrumental pieces, as well as piano and acoustic segments throughout. The centred ballad in "Heartburst" serves as the primary example of said emphasis, its placement between tracks more substantiated by the up-tempo rhythm section making it standout clearly as a soft key graced piece.

The tightly woven "Indifference Turned Paralysis" is most indicative of the progressive nature of the record, as it strikes out a guitar driven instrumental delivered in knottier chords, keyboard enhancement, backing choir and the random interjection of a distinctive acoustic segment following the three minute mark. It's the accelerant nature of this track that cements the notion that While Heaven Wept have progressed well beyond doom metal to produce an album more accurately described as a particularly melodic and generic form of progressive metal, with little maintenance of the low-end of their hitherto heavier basis, resulting in a much lighter record in Suspended At Aphelion.

Primarily clean vocals are offered contrasting arrangements in "Icarus And I" the delivery bearing a mildly rasping distinction to provide two characterising voices in what is a thematically focused record. The seguing cohesiveness between the tracks "Icarus And I" and "Ardor" constitutes a significant portion of the album's forty minute duration, and much of what the band set out to achieve is demonstrated within these two parts.

While the record is cohesively built around a concept, such being a hallmark of prog and indicative of the band's intentions, the appearance of a progressive nature in Suspended At Aphelion stems more obviously from the instrumentation, in terms of both structure and the complete departure of their style from doom whilst retaining a clear sense of identity, portrayed best in the vocal arrangements.

With all the doom stripped from their sound, While Heaven Wept produce a moving, if comparatively insubstantial and lightweight, record with this latest effort.