Review Summary: Sheer brilliance, you will be mesmerized by this masterpiece.
Folk has always been one of those genres which tends to find it's influnces shown in metal, so I have developed a taste for it outside of the metal world. Given, I haven’t really dived deep into it; I certainly keep my ears open for something new to try out. With the help of a fellow sputnik user, I stumbled across a band entitled October Falls. Playing an extremely somber, acoustical blend of folk, October Falls has really driven a spike to the depths of my heart, my mind and my soul. It’s so hard to imagine that the recordings of a guitar, flute, and piano can have such a lingering effect on my mind, but this right here is certainly proof enough that it is possible. Like autumn in a dark forest, in the mysterious light of the full moon, October Falls’ EP
Tuoni stirs something deep inside oneself.
It is this feeling that drives the listener to all ends with their sanity and perception of songwriting ability. It can make a person scream in agonizing rage or weep with a sorrowful joy, and it will most certainly take charge of your attention for its 25 minute run time and force you into this place which is shrouded in mystery, death, and darkness. There is just something so amazingly entrancing about this album that I cannot help but write such deep descriptions of it.
The tools which are used to carefully weave a web of such daunting emotional complexity are nothing more than an acoustic guitar, a piano and a flute. The acoustic guitars are at the forefront and all times, and constantly pick away riff after riff of quite possibly the best acoustic guitar passages I have ever heard laid down onto an album. While they aren’t overly complicated or quick-paced, they add immeasurable magnitudes of emotion and atmosphere to the music which simply cannot be put into words. Ever so often, a piano will creep its way into the music, underlying the already dark ambiance of the acoustic guitars and often grinding out songs to a slow, depressing halt. The echoes of flutes work their way into the distant background in songs such as “As The Mist Unfolds”, emphasizing on the overall “beautiful death” type atmosphere of this album.
Speaking of atmosphere, something like this comes along once in a great while. If I though that Ulver’s
Kveldssanger was as atmospheric as you could get in terms of loneliness and depression, I had no idea what was recorded on this album. The first time I listened to this album I was alone in my bed, late at night just sitting there looking at the moon outside the window. In the pitch black of the night sky, I found beauty and serenity in the bleakness, I found emotions I never knew I had, I found an unearthly sense of desolation, and I found what is quite possibly the most moving album I have ever heard.
Pros
+ Amazing Atmosphere
+ Excellent Songwriting
+ Awesome Production
+ Unparalleled Emotion
+ Extremely Smooth To Listen To
+ Excellent Instrumental Talent
Cons
- May Become Repetitive
