The Morningside - The Wind, the Trees, and the Shadows of the Past

Rating: 7.2

Country: Russia

Release Date: 2007

Track list:
1. Intro )
2. The Wind
3. The Trees
4. The Shadows of the Past
5. Outro

Total playing time 40:00

The Morningside - The Wind, the Trees, and the Shadows of the Past

Boris Sergeev - Drums
Ilya Yegorychev - Bass
Sergey Chelyadinov - Guitars
Igor Nikitin - Guitars, Vocals

First, some perspective: this site features bands with charming names such as Bloody Diarrhoea, Hymen Holocaust, and Bathtub Shitter. In those reviews, band names like Corpsefucking Art are referenced, and the album art invariably features imagery like lepers raping eachother with chainsaws. This band is called The Morningside. Below this paragraph, band names like Opeth and Katatonia are highlighted in blue. (I hope I'm not getting too meta here.) The album's cover art features some lovely trees. I guess what I'm trying to say is this: if you're a regular reader, and at this moment you have any preconceived notions as to whether or not you would like or dislike this album, you're probably right either way.

Now. I believe there should be a musical equivalent of roller coaster height requirements; "you must be at least this musically competent to ape your musical heroes." If such were the case, The Morningside could easily be used as such a scale. The musical heroes, in this case, are Agalloch, Anathema, Brave Murder Day-era Katatonia, among other purveyors of similar mid-paced, autumnal gloom. There are also hints of Opeth's Morningrise, sans the pretention and insincerity. At times, the album's poppy, liberal melodicism even nods towards Gothenburg -- except some sort of bizarro-world Gothenburg, the quality of which doesn't run the gamut from strictly average to the level of "odious abortion."

The rhythm section is here, but I guarantee you won't really remember what they do; aside from the occasional bit of adventurous, if disposable bass interplay, the songs are based around showy, serpentine lead development that is, at best, quite dizzying in its scope. An exception (disregarding the intro and outro) is "The Shadows of the Past," the first half of which is entirely acoustic, the momentum guided by the vocalist's amusingly accent-tinted ("dreeft away," you say?) venture at singing -- while the second half, on the other hand, is electric, but seems to drift and lull rather than whine and dazzle. The album teeters between genuinely moving and saccharine, but always maintains an element of "prettiness," for the lack of a word that doesn't make me want to fuck someone to death with a box cutter. The vocalist has a comprehensible, raspy scream bringing to mind early Dark Tranquillity, one song peppered with his unfortunate screamed/whispered vocal patterns that sound like they belong in an In Flames album. I really didn't want to call this guy a "melodeath vocalist," but that's sort of what he is upon overanalyzation. Regardless, the vocals aren't without their power, and are well suited for this kind of music.

I like that despite the fact The Morningside play an introverted, atmospheric form of metal, they don't take the easy route and lean upon keyboards. Some of the somber acoustic passages over rain & wind sound effects do come off as a bit superfluous, but they're just there to segue between the lead guitar acrobatics and moody vocals composing the meat of the album.

Too often, writers judge music on the basis of what it's not rather than on the basis of what it is. This album is the kind of thing that usually takes the brunt of such spurious pretenses; "this ain't no emotional, melodic metal with acoustic guitars and sensitive singing bullshit! BUY!" Well, The Wind, the Trees, and the Shadows of the Past is just that, but it's quite a solid album anyway. The Morningrise are inoffensive on every level and are one step away from aesthetic facelessness, but their professionalism cannot be overlooked.

February 3rd, 2008