THE WIND, THE TREES AND THE SHADOWS OF THE PAST

This album has recieved a lot of praise on this site by many great reveiwers, but I cant for the life of me find why. This album is good enough, it has some quiet post rock parts and some more metal parts but nothing I would call home about. The growling on this album also dosn't appeal to me, and I usually love growling, but this guys tone is not really my thing, and I can't really tell you why. This one fails to take me anywhere, it just dosn't have that trancendent post-rock quality you find me rambling on to describe on many of my other reviews. For me though my largest problem is that this sounds too much like Agalloch.

Intro: pretty much just wind noises

The Wind: Sounds like Agalloch, except that the drums sound clicky to me and detract from the atmosphere. Also there is some quieter folksy sounding post-rock bits, also in an Agalloch style. I also don't here much in the way of build ups here or minimalism, just guitar riffage and folksy bits.

The Trees: Really long ambient intro and then a guitar tone that sounds strangly familiar, It sounds strangly similar to the one Agalloch used on "Limbs" Honestly this song would fit great on "Ashes Against the Grain" The song redeams itself a bit with a nice acoustic interlude. Sadly however the song is back again with clickyer drums than ever driving me nuts. Good, not great.

The Shadows of the Past: The best most origional song on the disc, the only one that I find myself wanting to listen too, and I really really like it, I hope they go this route on their next release. The thick accent and lyrics that seem to have been put through a translator only make the song sound more real and pure, but sadly the band feels the need to go back into its safe place and play more Agalloch sound.

Overall this is an ok listen, but it is certainly not essential, and too derivative, however the band shows promise and hey it was free, so thats good. Reccomended for those who can't get enough post-metal, those who want more Agalloch and for those who simply could do with some good free listening. over all two stars: collectors/fans only