Review Summary: Heavier and more diverse music is given with the loss of some atmosphere.
The Morningside is a doomy, progressive death metal band from Russia. While their previous album, “The Wind, the Trees, and the Shadows of the Past,” was fueled by the imagery of a snow-covered forest, “Moving Crosscurrent of Time” has a much more varied approach to songwriting in just about every facet. The songs still retain a fascination with autumn and winter and the lyrics have a much more different focus in every song, such as gods, death, and memories. The vocals are still essentially the same black metal style as usual, though there aren’t nearly as many grammatical errors in his lyrics.
A musical change of pace is apparent immediately once the music kicks in. This album is noticeably heavier, embracing more of the melodic death metal aspect of their influences. Guitar melodies are much more riff-based, but still in keeping with the somewhat slow tempo of “The Wind, the Trees, and the Shadows of the Past.” The best part about this evolved sound is that the bass is extremely audible. It’s a little sad that this is amazing, but it’s become very typical, especially in metal bands, for the bass guitar to be completely overshadowed by the rest of the band. While still not as prevalent as the others, it is still significant enough to not be an aspect of the album that one needs to really search for in order to hear.
While this heavier approach to songwriting is certainly different from what The Morningside previously showcased, it is not unwelcome. They still sound great, though maybe not quite as unique. There is still plenty of atmosphere this time around, but it seems like most of the album is almost like a step forward as much as it is a step backwards. Some segments are repeated a little too much and it can become slightly irritating. Fortunately, this only happens once or twice on the entire album and it really isn’t enough to make the song or even the segment itself unwanted.
“Moving Crosscurrent of Time” is a great album with more songs and more variety than The Morningside’s previous work. The album’s heavier rhythms, significantly audible bass, and more diverse lyrics are brought down only by a couple overly repeated sections and less atmosphere. The future looks bright for this group of Russians, as long as they keep making music for us all to enjoy.
