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A Storm Of Light: As the valley of death becomes us, our silver memories fade
02/01/12 || The Duff
I recently raved about A Storm of Light’s sophomore effort, “Forgive Us Our Trespasses”, and in true Duffster-retardo fashion, I’m a touch let down with the follow-up to an album I immensely cherished while everyone about me applauds it ‘til their eyes cloud over and tears stream into mouths agape. Not that I’m truly disappointed with “As the Valley of Death”, you understand, but where the band’s prior record was foreboding, this one here is depressing with a hint of radio-hit friendly.
Once more we’re at well-produced stoner/doom, with a bit more of a spacious, hollowed timbre, with the hopeless, dirge-fueled feel of “Forgive Us Our Trespasses”, only this time instead of interlude tracks separating huge morsels of music, we’re left with all tracks save the closer “Wasteland” being of quite standard length for something closer to being an ambitious rock album, breathing room coming in the form of semi-acoustic cuts like “Destroyer” and “Leave No Wounds”. It works, although there is a sense that the band is abandoning a staple to its sound by cutting away unnecessary length despite all the tunes being pretty slow-assed trawling, the bitesize of post-rock.
That isn’t in the slightest way to say ASoL are cutting their locks for broader appeal, it’s simply a case of making the vocal melody stand out, very much the rage these days with Mastodon and Junius seemingly following suit. The riffs are about as straightforward as can be, at times extraordinarily simple, not at all indicative of one member from Neurosis’ ranks in the band and so therefore I’m likely to think this typical fare musically as ASOL’s debut effort if criticism on such is to be trusted – we’re left with something appearing backed by status a fair bit.
As to Josh Graham’s performance, his despondent vocals are awesome, awarded far more freedom than on “Forgive Us Our Trespasses” – while the songs have become less engaging, more traditionally presented, Josh has stepped up to the plate so as to give a mix of despairing, flared and impassioned; dare I say he almost sings on this record? Although far from bowling me over, Josh’s frustration at the disarray in today’s world is felt through every single note; if it weren’t for the vocals, the album wouldn’t be half the success it is, so ultimately “As the Valley of Death Becomes Us…” is one tenth reputation, two tenths good music and four tenths vocals carrying everything forward splendidly with the rest failing to hit the mark.
- Information
- Released: 2011
- Label: Burning World Records
- Website: A Storm of Light MySpace
- Band
- Domenic Seita: bass, vocals
- Joel Hamilton: synthesizer, organ
- Josh Graham: vocals, guitars, keyboards
- B.J. Graves: drums, percussion
- Tracklist
- 01. Missing
- 02. Collapse
- 03. Black Wolves
- 04. Destroyer
- 05. Wretched Valley
- 06. Silver
- 07. Leave No Wounds
- 08. Death’s Head
- 09. Wasteland
