Band:	When Icarus Falls
Album:	Over The Frozen Seas
Style:	Post-metal
Release date:	September 2009

01. Black Tree
02. Over The Frozen Seas
03. They Created Lies Which Everyone Uses

Post-Metal
Recorded: Studio Mécanique, Switzerland 2009
Label: Get A Life! Records
Total Running Time: 31:10


Stop what you're doing. Go listen to When Icarus Falls this instant, then come back reading this. And that's a direct order.

Seriously, if you're a bit open-minded to minimal post-metal and all, this might be something you don't want to miss out on. Over The Frozen Seas is immensely dark yet bleak and as said, somewhat minimalistic. But at the same time also hauntingly beautiful. Somehow even ethereal. But unfortunately also fatally flawed. Despite a handful of heavy arrangements and some splurges of the deepest vocals I know at least fourteen extreme metal singers would be jealous of, this music has not very much to do with metal actually. This could be a cause of general consternation. Or we could just rely on that so-called open-mindedness for the metal border genres and move on. I opt for the second route.

Alrighty then, so what about the music? Well, these ambient soundscapes are just bewildering. Frankly, I'm desperately caught in the gloomy shadows this EP is casting on me, unable to run away from them. Especially the title track is so insanely beautiful, it really gets to me every single time I hear it. I mean, the other two songs are pretty neat when it comes to that typical post-metal atmosphere too. But, "Over The Frozen Seas"... sweet tap dancing Jesus on a pogo stick what a song. I can feel those piano-driven melodies whirling over forlorn and colorless landscapes. I can see the spine of a naked brown haired girl who just spilled a glass of the finest red wine on the milk-white silk sheets of her bed. I can hear the shivering cry of pain in the deepest woods in the darkest night, nobody else will ever hear. I imagine spending the rest of my time alive in total solitude, stuck with this EP on repeat; somehow a slim smile comes to my face. What the hell just happened?

If this is the soundtrack of Icarus falling, crafting my own pair of wings and flying close to the sun doesn't seem like the worst idea in Greek mythology ever after all.

Color me impressed.