August Wernicke

From the band that gave us ‘Within the Everfrozen Winternight’ on their debut album, we got ‘Machina Mimesis (In the Corner Café)’ only about a year later, signaling the start of a crazy spiral for Fall of the Leafe. The Finns had also changed vocalist over that period, though Tuomas Tuominen still doesn’t let up the extremity very often, sounding like he’s pissed at all the autumnal melodies going on around him. He would remain with the band until their eventual split in 2007, gradually opting more and more for his distinctive strangulated cleans, which show up here on ‘I Feathe to the Juniper’, alongside blastbeats, screeching rasps, and epic keyboards that puts this closer to melodic black metal than you’d think. In fact, for all the praise of Obsequiae’s style of late, I reckon Fall of the Leafe were doing about two thirds of it more than 20 years ago, minus the harp interludes of course.

Intrigued yet? Yes, and rightly so, because August Wernicke has a habit of being intriguing, from the slightly bizarre themes that become audible in some of the lyrics to the shockingly melodic melodeath/black style that regularly gives way to bits of epic, folk, and even power metal, due to the sprightly drumming and melodic riffing. Anyone approaching from the melodeath side as I did will find the fewest surprises, fleet guitars flashing around almost constantly and only rarely giving way to the blistering tremolo riffing that makes ‘Lectured by the Demons of Dreams’ a heavy surprise. The melodies weave their magic right from the off, as ‘The Autumnsphere’ provides a complete package of catchiness despite the smaller dose, opening with gentle acoustics and quickly getting into repetitive folky lead riffs that prove difficult to shake from my head. Slight let-ups in pace plus the addition of keyboards hint at less chaotic grandeur, ‘Wonder Clouds Rain’ doing all it can to fix the awkward English of its title with an accurate portrayal of the feeling contained in the words, something also evident in ‘Platinum’, with its Sentenced-level hummable melody.

Despite the level of detail apparent in each song’s construction, I sometimes get the idea of August Wernicke as a touch throwaway. Due to the melodies being present most of the time and the song structures tending to be quite busy, allowing little downtime, the whole experience starts to blur together, not least because 52 minutes pushes the limits of attention in this style. What Fall of the Leafe put together on this sophomore album is much more physical and demanding than Obsequiae’s recent The Palms of Sorrowed Kings as a result of a mix that bunches the sounds together into a tight ball of fury at faster tempos, which predominate over more relaxed moments. Nothing like an interlude turns up throughout these 10 songs, nor, surprisingly, do the occasional acoustic guitars result in any balladic moments, while the spirited pace and endless riffing can’t assemble itself into a whole as gripping as Dissection’s early work. In that regard, having the folky whistles and clean vocals of ‘Bleak Picture, August’ at the bottom of the tracklist was really a misstep, since its spaciousness would have been useful somewhere in the midst of the tiring pace elsewhere.

I don’t want to knock this release too badly, partly because the musicianship – while untempered by moderation – is excellent, and partly because there’s something innately likeable about Fall of the Leafe throwing everything down in the name of melody and butterflies instead of in the name of Satan. Perhaps that’s why I get an odd feeling about August Wernicke, seeing as the serious intensity of the music can’t be matched by the band’s intensity of purpose. Either way, why not take a stroll down the left hand path of melodic death metal?

I was absolutely carried away by this wonderful music! It`s Fall of the Leafe second output and absolutely awesome!

Finnish atmospheric melodic death metal with black metal elements (AND IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SWEDES, NOTHING!!!) simply shocks with its stunning arrangements. This work is much more mature from musical point of view to their first cd (Evanescent, Everfading) that was too sweet and lacked heaviness slightly. Here they got the ruff metal edge back again not only retaining the trademark melodism but improving it further.

MUSIC IS VERY BEAUTIFUL!!! Generally it is mid-paced but there are a lot of faster parts so you`ll never get boring. Atmospheric feeling comes from
leads that are the main driving force of every song, acoustic guitars are wonderfully inserted into slower passages and perfect drumming erupts into hyperfast blastbeats. Vocal parts are trully scaring. It`s a combination of black and death vocal lines put together that sound more like black anyway. There are moments of clean singing from time to time to dissolve the atmosphere. Needless to say that the production is brilliant!

What do you think these guys sing about? All the common subjects for such kind of music are certainly not involved at all. Lyrics are very abstract and remind more thoughts of a person expressed on paper. They really need some insight or guidance into. Probably only Tuomas Tuominen, the singer, can reveal the true sense behind them otherwise i doubt you`ll ever solve the puzzle.

If you get this album you`ll gain twice or even thrice from music. Money you`ll spend on it is nothing in comparison with the sensations to experience. Starting with the cover art and finishing with the contents Fall of the Leafe contrived to provide you with perfection in everything
about this release.

I guess the best time to listen to the music of Fall of the Leafe is a late evening on the threshold of night when all day worries are far away. Relax, muse, think about something distant and let the music take you on a journey into your own personal August Wernicke...