Year: 2024
Label: Metal Race Records
Rating: 6,8 / 10
With this release, Metal Race turns to a genre that Anatoly publishes quite rarely: Doom Metal. The band AUTUMNAL DISCORD was founded back in 1995, but after releasing only one album, it lay dormant until 2022. EP "Episodes" is the first full-fledged AUTUMNAL DISCORD release in 27 (!) years.
On "Episodes", the band performs a romantic gothic doom that echoes TRISTANIA, THEATRE OF TRAGEDY, and similar bands. Medium-tempo music, rich and catchy lead guitar, expressive bass, alternating pure female and rough male vocals. Along with all this, there are good arrangements, acoustic parts, and so on. In the last two tracks, the band spins out to the fullest, giving out outstanding solos and even some aggressive fragments. There are no keyboards at all, and I would say that this is great, since their presence in this style most often turns music into pop music with electric guitars.
For me personally, the trouble with “Episodes” is precisely the style of the release. In my opinion, this kind of doom is one of the most sterile and "granfatherly" (in a negative sense) among all metal styles. Let me explain using the example of the band DIATHRA from the glorious city of Mahiljou. My countrymen have also been playing since 1995, have the same style of music, occasionally release albums, and even less often play live. And all this time they exist somewhere in their own little world, outside the "scene". Despite the fact that they formally play metal, the band members in public look like the most usual citizens: women in evening dresses, men in ironed shirts and strict trousers. The most radical image you can see from them is bland black t-shirts and jeans. In simple terms, these are not metalheads, but people in their late 40s or 50s, who at one time were hooked by heavy music, listened to PARADISE LOST "Draconian Times", THEATRE OF TRAGEDY, NIGHTWISH and Swedish melodic "death" metal, and then read the magazines "M", “Legion”and “Dark City". Their music is more suitable for expensive restaurants and and small rock clubs, where the audience raises lighters in the air when the next acoustic fragment starts.
I have the same impression from AUTUMNAL DISCORD. With the difference that they are slightly more metallic. It's not that bad; it's just the music of another social environment that I have almost nothing in common with. Therefore, the final rating of the album reflects only my impression: everything is fine, but not my style. After all, from a formal point of view, everything is fine here. The music isn't boring, it's beautiful, and it doesn't have any crazy bullshit. These people can play and sing (even the accent is practically absent). It feels like there were a lot of rehearsals and hard work before recording. The sound is very high-quality, although not perfect; some things could have been better. I think the connosieurs of the style will really like it.
The CD edition from Metal Race has a 6-page fold-out booklet where you will find all the lyrics and brief information about the release. I was not impressed with the design: if the cover art from the (ex-?) vocalist of the band ЛЕТАЛЬНЫЙ ИСХОД corresponds well to the musical content, then everything else reeks of amateurish graphic designs of the mid 2000s. Details on a video.
