Band:	This Empty Flow
Album:	The Album
Style:	Post-rock, Shoegaze
Release date:	2006

Disc I
01. Nowafter
02. Useless
03. Stream
04. Towards Distant
05. Snow Blind
06. Distress
07. (But I Am) Still
08. Sweet Bloom Of Night Time Flowers

Disc II
01. Serpents
02. Highest Of The Angels
03. The 14th
04. (But I Am) Still [disco demo version]
05. Untitled
06. Distress (Version 0.2)
07. See Nothing
08. Nevermore
09. Untitled
10. Distress (Version 0.1)
11. The Circle Did Close Indeed

A hidden jewel, rediscovered

I'm holding in my hands the best kept secret of the Finnish scene. This Empty Flow was formed after the split-up of Seminal Funeral Doom project Thergothon. In 1996 they released their debut album "Magenta Skycode" and 10 years later Eibon Records re-mastered and re-released the album as a double Cd with lots of extra goodies, but the re-release doesn't bear the "Magenta Skycode" banner as before, but just "The Album". Come, follow me in a journey that will broaden your horizons.

This Empty Flow is not exactly what you can call the heaviest band in the planet, on contraire, the atmospheres of their music are dismal and bleak. Think this: Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Cocteau Twins, Slowdive and to a minor extent The Cure and Massive Attack. With this wide array of influences what can you expect? Pure magic. Revamped.

When you listen songs like the opener "Nowafter" you feel struck down by a huge burden of despair, just until the percussion sets in to show you an optimistic, clearer side of the band, to lighten you up, this bipolarity is something you don't get to feel in a single song that often. With "Useless" you can clearly see where Sham Rain picked up a trick or two.

This is sad, melancholic music that doesn't need to be labeled, it just exists beyond musical classification. Let's take the instrumental "Towards Distant" in the first section, effects like spoken voices and white noise/static are in the front, then the percussion and the piano sets in with little, almost imperceptible effects in the back, like a whole layer of sound behind a drum and a piano, honey to the ears. As a bonus, the second Cd of this re-release contains rare tracks, studio-outtakes, rehearsal tracks, lost songs and other goodies.

If you like good music, if you like sad music, if you like different music, I strongly recommend this album. Things like this don't come too often. My only complain is that we won't be seeing more material from This Empty Flow, because they disbanded some while ago.