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When Nothing Remains - As All Torn Asunder review




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Reviewer:
7.3

37 users:
8.05
Band: When Nothing Remains
Album: As All Torn Asunder
Release date: March 2012


01. Embrace Her Pain
02. The Sorrow Within
03. A Portrait Of The Dying
04. Mourning Of The Sun
05. Solaris
06. Her Lost Life
07. In Silence I Conceal The Pain
08. As All Torn Asunder
09. Outro - Tears

The pretty groovy cover art of As All Torn Asunder gives you a pretty decent idea of what to expect musically. In a funeral foggy graveyard we watch a well-dressed dandy as he escorts his ghostly lady to the black horses and creepy pilot of the "bring out your dead" wagon?

Clearly When Nothing Remains is one of those Crustpunk/Grind bands that crams 47 songs into 12.5 minutes of music.

Well, either that or another one of those doom bands that continues to pay sonic homage to some of the big names that helped launch the genre. You know, like Lost My Draconian Bride.

Even if derivative, the music is sonically packaged in a manner about as appealing as the visual packaging. As the album kicks off with "Embrace Her Pain", piano and keyboards slowly usher us in before lush, deep, moody melodic death doom pours forth, enveloping you in a melancholic fog.

The album goes on (and on, and on) from there. Nine tracks (well, seven proper, along with a short interlude and a closer) span 70 minutes ? and it seems to drag long enough where when I'm listening to this in the background while engaging in another activity, after what seems a long time I'll turn my head, listen a second or three, and think, "wait? This album is still going?" The slow tempos, mournful fog, and swell production values of this album at least don't make this an unpleasant experience like perhaps more aggressive styles seem when they continue , rather like this sentence, long after you'd like to see them end and continue to carry on without regard for your desire to see your time spent elsewhere.

Furthermore, the style of music doesn't deviate terribly from the opening track - which is perhaps my favorite of the lot. Without any seemingly random changes beyond doom riffing with growling cutting to short keyboard/piano passages before resuming the power chords and growling, this is akin to a long road trip through the country. You know, the scenery is pleasant enough, but after a while, the beauty is diminished by the unending uniformity.

While this seems harsh, I suppose it's partially Negative Nancy overkill considering that while songs are similar to one another ? and ones others have done? they are still good. This is another one of those albums I can hit play over and again and find myself neither pumped for another journey by doomtrain, nor dreading an hour and change of my listening life not listening to Sleestak or some other band I fixate on.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 8
Songwriting: 7
Originality: 6
Production: 8





Written on 01.08.2012 by BitterCOld has been officially reviewing albums for MetalStorm since 2009.


Comments

Comments: 4   Visited by: 180 users
02.08.2012 - 17:40
Rating: 7
Ag Fox
Angel No More
Spot on review. I feel pretty much the same about it
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loves 小巫
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02.08.2012 - 20:10
Zap
Guest
Quote:
as he escorts his ghostly lady to the black horses and creepy pilot of the "bring out your dead" wagon?

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03.08.2012 - 14:50
Merchant of Doom

I've had it constantly on repeat for a few days, until I tried to jump out of the window from the 3rd floor... I took it off, then. Pretty good stuff.
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07.08.2012 - 19:29
blackvelvet

"Lost My Draconian Bride" lol
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