Maudlin of the Well - Bath
The Blue Ghost/Shedding Qliphoth
A great song to start the album off, opens up with some nice harmonics and precedes to soft guitar playing for the next 6:40, with drums popping in at about 5 minutes. Just a little over a minute before the songs in, you realize that this is indeed a metal band, even though it took a while to get to it, and the heavy guitars rip in and you wonder what hit you. GREAT song. 5/5
They Aren't All Beautiful
More metallish. Starts in with a semi-muted guitar playing for a few measures and then you drop into a mind-blowing double bass frenzy that puts your brain in a blender and swallows it, only to regurgitate it back up into your skull at about 5:25. If it was that ten seconds longer this song would be the cause of many suicides, but it ends at just the right time. WONDERFUL. 5/5
Heaven and Weak
Cello starts out, pizzacato style. This showcases some great avant-garde of the band.Ggets you in the doh-dah-do-duhduhduh-dat groove, with guitars accenting every fourth beat...vocals start in at about 1:25 and are probably the worst vocals on the album but still are mind-blowingly perfect with the music. Synths, strings, and brass are fiddling around in key behind the vocals, and the vox are really ambient. At 3:02 ambient is still going, but now we have ambient metal going on, with heavy guitars and bass, though lowered to fit under the vocals. Guitar and vox solos compliment each other. At 4:30 you get a shredfest, with another deathmetal grind going on...vox kick back in at 5:32, this time going all rock style, and nice flanged cymbal/air effects swirl. At 6:00 it goes all soft again with really heavy drums still. Song ends in more grindfest. 4/5
Interlude 1
Nice acoustic strumming to begin with, and soft electric lead part over top. Lets you catch your breath between grindfests. A minute and a half of some of the best acoustic you'll ever hear. 4/5
The Ferryman
Starts out with typical scary church organ. Makes you think maudlin's gone all cliche until it hits the diminished chord, and then your faith is restored. Random drum work until about 1:30, and soft electric from interlude 1 comes in over more strumming...really groovin' stuff. At 2:30 something like a cheesegrater comes flying at your face and you wonder where the soft strumming pixies flew off too, and how these hellhounds with guitars took their place. Then an ambient synth hints in over the guitars and you realize that these sounds are coming from the little fellows that were playing the nice groove music. Organ and opera chanting kicks back in with the guitar at 4:30. Continues so until about 6:30 and then you hear nice sound FX/voices that sound surprisingly musical. 4/5
Marid's Gift of Art
Begins with sound effects tied in with the ferryman. Sounds like someone trudging through a wet cellar. You hear acoustic strumming and some sitar sounding drones fading in, and nice soft pretty male vocals initiate at 1:00. Alto sax( i think, maybe trumpet) solo at 2:00. Guitar solo afterwards. Very pretty song. 5/5
Girl With a Watering Can
More nice solo like the sax/trumpet one in the previous song, this time without accompaniment. This song is in a more minor key though. Guitar strumming. Now GORGEOUS female vocals...beautifully accented by cymbals. Continued with strings accenting until 4:00 when that beastly guitar drops in. girl continues enchanting you like nothing happens, the paradox tears your mind up but you fall in love with it. Guitars just shred on an on throughout song, as the girl eventually walked away or something and the guitars go crazy. 5/5
Birth Pains of Astral Projection
Nearly first three minutes are really pretty. Ambient, but upbeat. Never boring, always patterned. At 3:13 you are reminded this band can be as metal as it gets. Less grind metal this time. Pretty metal. Sounds dorian. Screamed screamed screamed vocals that pour passion into your soul. Passions continue as guitars go away, reappear, and finally fade out. This guy eventually lowers himself to saying his piece instead of screaming it, and the drums keep things moving. Fades out with some more heavy guitar. Then ambience. 4.6/5
Interlude 2
Starts off with more watery rhythm, then they showcase more avantgarde. Bass does a little dum---de dum---dum ---dedumdeum thing while guitar drones around, and strings flirt with you, accenting ends of measures. Chords change every 4th measure. Watery beat continues. Synth does overchords and a dehduh dehduhduh thing. Pretty. 4.8/5
Geography
Begins with pretty picked guitar and synth backing. Soft male vocals, Strumming ensues under soft vocals for 4 minutes, with drums and a moog solo popping up somewhere in there. Structured repetitively but keeps you listening. Vocals say alot. 4/5
Overall, this a must-listen. One of the better albums I have ever heard. Rivals kayo dot's "Choirs of the Eye" . And that is saying ALOT.
On a scale, I give this album a
4.98/5.:thumb:
