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Long Winters' Stare > Before the Dawn, So Go the Shadows of Humanity > Reviews
Long Winters' Stare - Before the Dawn, So Go the Shadows of Humanity

Unacceptable! this album is a titanic masterpiece - 100%

raveneyeslikemirrors, April 6th, 2014

"Before the Dawn So Go the Shadows of Humanity"...

A long ponderous title for a obscure and self produced metal album. This cd is released on a tiny label called Dragonflight in the late 90's and features a little touch of gothic and medieval imagery on it. Despite its limited pressings the cd sits in backorder stocks and 1$ used bins at distributors and metal stores around the world. People have bought and sold it and it continually was in a state of changing hands or sitting around gathering dust... anything but regular listening. Some reviews exist in zines or old websites.. all of them indifferent or negative. This cd is just another of the mass of 'mediocre' metal cds that make up all of the nameless piles that collectors sift trough in hopes of finding that rare coveted cult metal album anyone whose in the know is looking for.

Gothic metal is well known to be my biggest style of music... not psych doom, black metal, post metal, or any of the star genres that are making waves now. It makes collecting some cds very easy since people generally don't want them, but often I feel as if its my task to latch on to these bands that pretty much no one ever gives a passing thought to, and the bargain bin is a silent graveyard for me to wander in, looking at those gone forever unloved and unhailed.

Most discarded bands like this are mostly copying formulas unopular or already repeated with only a little variation. My Dying Bride and Dimmu Borgir copies and all... An occasional few of these cds are just simply bizarre unclassifiable experiments that people feel are failures or just too weird and awkward. Long Winters' Stare is one such band.

It is very hard to describe their sound, which is in full force on this album. Long Winters' Stare has been referred to as a 'doom metal' band by their lead member 'Madrigal'. That I believe is a fair comparison. But even the Metal Archives defines them as the nonexistent genre of 'dark metal'. But I will instead offer up my best description of their music.

Take a band like Anathema, doom metal with heavy ugly vocals featuring some classical music instrumentation and synths. Now then de-tune the hell out of it to an intense death doom level, even funeral doom like Skepticism and Thergothon. But don't slow it down all the way, keep a few blisteringly fast parts. Sludge everything up in an oppressive production as low as the ugliest of death metal bands. But keep the synths prominent. Refocus the synths from weepy symphonics to low organs, medieval hurdy gurdy, and lots and lots of piano. And add a contrabass to give it a rich acoustic sound. With that you kind of have an idea of what Long Winters' Stare is like. And Before the Dawn So Go the Shadows of Humanity is the genesis of this sound.

This album first off comes in a little case with some art. I would like to say that despite its simplicity, this artwork is amazingly beautiful. The lettering is lovely, the subdued tones amazing and surreal, the band photo shows the group in medieval clothing wielding axes and swords in a black metal configuration under the pseudonyms Madrigal and Scarab. But the pictures are again subdued under strange lighting and come off well, even though Madrigal is sporting a little corpsepaint! There is also a strange rune printed on the art. Its beautifully subtle and well executed.

The biggest highlight to this and album is their low end. This album is Thergothon level of abyssmalness! The guitars are an earth shaking rumble and the drums thick and muffled the cymbals barely noticeable and the bass drum a pleasing wicked thud. Even the excessive synths may rise a little hopefully but ultimately cannot break out of this wall of oppression! Madrigal's low death growls give it a masculine weight alongside his ugly barks. Some occasional female vocals and a nice level of color and sad beauty... the real highlight being Scarab's occasional high flying clean vocals. This is especially notable on the rather goofy named song "He is Insane". His voice comes of a little strange, but still emotionally effective. In fact its strangeness actually helps to further intensify the unnatural sound of the music.

Another key to this band is its synth use. Again their is a lot of synths, but they are subdued from being too pretty. The most often used effect is the ponderous and rolling piano melodies that seem to accompany every segment of the album. The other synth patches are produced and chosen in such a way to give the music a weird medieval music sound. The cover of of the Kansas song(?!) has a touch of heraldic trumpets at the end that very much gives the impression you are a knight before Arthur's court. Despite all this deep sorrow and darkness in this music... the synths occasionally play out a melodic line full of purpose and with an underlying sense of hopeful resolve amidst blackness. It reminds me of some of the more divine synth work by Dead Can Dance. You can hear this in songs like the Kansas cover and "War Epic". Its as if you are amidst a black sunset in the Piedmont forest of autumn, after a cold overcast day of storms. You look southward and a patch of blue sky and orange sunny landscape makes its appearance far away and you feel a small sense of cheer as you make your way that direction, as if time would stop and you would reach this warm place in the sunset before night comes on. Its very special when music can put conjure such an image in my mind.

Then the song "Into the Darkness" comes in once again and you are treated to this absudly negative mass of ugly as hell low bassial guitars, apathetic pianos, cryptic drums, and an angrily performed contrabass. It's wonderful in every way.

People have accused Long Winter's Stare of being a sloppy experiment pulling from too many influences and coming off as very awkward. These people have missed the point. All the elements on this album are a truly unique synthesis of diverse ideas that work very well together and create what pretty much is a wholly new genre of doom metal. And yes that's key, this music is one central idea. Its not a mess of ideas. Its a cohesive idea if you can look beyond your styles and conventions. I do sincerely hope so as again no one knows or cares of this band. I got my copy of this album for 1.99 and there are still many unsold pieces in bargain bins all around.

If you have any taste for doom and particularly old funeral doom, get this album as fast as you can. Its super cheap. Take in many listens. I myself had to pour over their music a couple of times before I began to get it... its originality being a persistent draw that kept me trying until I found great success. I'm now listening to the chorus on Remain Life Eternal... sensing the underlying beauty under the blackness and I cant think of anything more wonderful. I feel this music so much... hell if you like any depressive metal genre such as atmospheric black metal or newer death doom/funeral doom you must try this! Something amazing has happened here...

Again... I hope this review is helpful and people find something amazing here and elevate this band out of its obscurity. Hearing this stuff particularly I cant help but feel a small resentment for bands whose names are trumpeted from the highest mountains in the scene particularly the elite circle. Everyone loves My Dying Bride, everyone loves Candlemass, everyone loves Thergothon, everyone loves Unholy... it gets tiresome to think that there are some people out there whose collections consist entirely of the whose who in metal.. and don't lavish love on any albums that are lost to time, revered by no one. As if those other bands somehow put more life and dedication into their music than all these little masses of groups in the dollar bin.

Don't think for one moment that this music was made without any passion or dedication. This careful love and brilliance shows here if you can look closely enough and have the patience. Perhaps yet again, this is solitary music for the one isolated soul that bothers to remember and plays alongside him like a ghost as he passes though the wilderness in contemplation.

(originally posted on my amazon page)

There are a few good moments - 60%

erebuszine, April 25th, 2013

The main problem with exploring or reviewing (and thus soliciting) the more 'obscure' bands in the underground scene is that in the almighty search for diamonds in the mud, you have to make your way through completely debilitating music - recordings that either shouldn't have ever been produced, music that never should have been put on tape, or releases that came out much too early in a band's career. Sometimes after hacking your way through the underbrush of bands striving for a larger audience or a greater share of the glory reserved for underground metal (in other words, practically no glory at all) you come to a set of musicians that are, for whatever reason, toiling in black obscurity when they should be having their collective name shouted from the rooftops.

Long Winters' Stare are not such a band. They are, however, an interesting pair of musicians because at least they try, over the course of this album's eight tracks, to inject something original or new into the underground. Combining a large number of influences and sounds (i.e. attempts at music) into a package that really can't be labeled (that's a good thing) because of a lack of cohesiveness or a single unifying vision, this music stumbles from one arena of obscurity to another over the course of its overlong 52 minutes. This isn't a band that's easy to explain, describe, or promote (I'm sure their label must be having problems with that angle) and as such I hail them because they seem to have escaped all the loose definitions of the dominant genres within metal or dark music. However, I'm not sure this is a result of their choice or a complete failure on their part to achieve what they set out to produce. This album doesn't make it clear at all what their direction was when they set foot into the studio.

Combining low lukewarm distorted guitars, clean slow-picked acoustics, multiple voices (male and female), a very boxy and amateurish rhythm section (the drums are recorded terribly), piano (or at least the piano sound from a synth), a contrabass, and grand 'symphonic' sections of synth manipulation, this band tries their best to bring all of these discordant or contrasting elements together into one unified dark sound, and then make that sound move forwards. They rarely succeed. In fact, this album reminds me of nothing so much as the more embarrassing works put out by the Greek scene, bands such as Varathron, Necromantia, etc. who when they are inspired and at the top of their game can be counted on to produce music that is at the most diverting in its strangeness. This band rarely reaches the midpoint of that kind of potential.

Having said that, there are a few good moments on this album. The third song, for example, 'War Epic', is an effective attempt at combining some of the more atmospheric elements of dark/black metal bands with a slow doom funeral crawl ala Skepticism. The vocals during this song reach a truly Jurassic level of gravel-throated power, and the main guitar/synth melodies are moving, I believe, in part because they are so simple. The key to writing music that is entrancing or mesmerizing, when very simple, it making sure that the few melodies in the song are actually evocative enough to bear constant repetition. On this song they succeed with this formula.

I hope that in the future this band will concentrate more on refining their own personal style, and adding a new sense of dynamics or compositional contrast in their songs. This band has the potential to do something a lot better as they mature... I think they just put out this CD a little too early.

UA

Erebus Magazine
http://erebuszine.blogspot.com

Before the Dawn so goes my attention span - 33%

Diabolical_Vengeance, December 17th, 2004

Long Winter?s Stare came to my attention via their last album, the mighty The Tears of Odin?s Fallen, an album I enjoy very much to this day. So it came as natural instinct for me to check out their previous album, whose title would rival most 3rd tier Black Metal bands in redundant wordiness.

My first spin of this album I found it to be a solid, if uneventful, modern American Doom-Death album. But as I listened to it again I found interest in the music waning. The album?s music, much like its title, is too long for it?s own good. For example, their cover of Kansas? Carry On Wayward Son becomes dull after 5 minutes, not very good for a 10 minute song. In terms of song structure LWS on this album merely repeat what they?ve done before. This gets quite tiresome rather quickly. Most of the songs, which hover around the traditional 8-minute mark, would be much better if chopped in half. Normally, I relish longer songs as a staple of Doom Metal but in this album?s case this trait is a curse, not a blessing. Perhaps Clint Listing, the main songwriter who is now heavily involved in ambient/darkwave music, may have been a bit too much influenced by ambient music as most of the music follows a similar song-structure as ambient: finding a musical motif or two and repeating it ad-nauseaum. This can result in music that is either very hypnotic or very dull; in this case the effect is more the latter than the former.

While I heavily recommend this band?s last album, I can?t really find anything in this release that warrants a purchase. Their Kansas cover has no value once the novelty has worn off. Therefore, I can?t really recommend this album to anyone unless I was looking to bore him or her to death.