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/:: Artist :: An Autumn for Crippled Children ::\
:: Album :: The Long Goodbye ::
:: Year :: 2015 ::
:: __ _ _ __ ::
-:--\\-----------------------------------------------------------------//--:-
:: \ / ::
:: . Genre :: Black Metal Source :: CDDA . ::
:: Label :: Wicker Man Recordings R.date :: 2015.03.30 ::
_::__ Cat.nr. :: WKM003 Size :: 78,81 MB __::_
::// \\::
::/---------------------------------------------------------------------\::
:: ::
/: Encoder :: LAME 3.98.4 -V0 :\
..: Bitrate :: avg. 266kbps : .
. Quality :: 44,1kHz/Joint Stereo .
. .
Website :: https://www.facebook.com/aafcc2009
__ __ _ . : _ ____ _ _ ____ _ : . _ __ __
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/: . : : . :\
/:: ::\
:: 01. The Long Goodbye 04:59 ::
:: 02. Converging Towards the Light 04:13 ::
:: 03. A New Form of Stillness 04:04 ::
:: 04. Only Skin 05:02 ::
:: 05. When Night Leaves Again 04:12 ::
:: 06. She's Drawing Mountains 04:41 ::
:: 07. Endless Skies 05:44 ::
:: 08. Gleam 03:54 ::
:: 09. The Sleep of Rust 04:23 ::
:: ------- ::
.. >> 41:12 ..
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/:: ::\
:: ::
:: An Autumn for Crippled Children are exemplars of blackgaze, ::
:: the increasingly popular subgenre that takes inspiration ::
:: from black metal and shoegaze. Naturally, they're bound to ::
:: get comparisons to Deafheaven and Alcest, and while they are ::
:: contemporaries of both, they barely resemble one another. On ::
:: the surface, they keep black metal's fuzzy hum that Alcest ::
:: and others have consciously dropped. The Dutch trio also ::
:: exert much more of a post-hardcore influence, which is ::
:: evident in their shorter songs. More significantly, there's ::
:: a damaged aspect to their music, with strings and synths ::
:: breaking out haphazardly. The Long Goodbye is their fifth ::
:: full-length release, following Try Not to Destroy Everything ::
:: You Love, which honed their sound while keeping it ::
:: endearingly messy. This album cleans up some more of the ::
:: racket. ::
:: ::
:: Unlike most bands who focus more on the gaze than the black, ::
:: AAFCC still have a fairly abrasive guitar tone, evident in ::
:: the opening rings of the title track. You can detect a ::
:: melody beneath, but despite the dream pop influences, the ::
:: guitars are more blinding than soothing. Even so, there's ::
:: variety to be found in Goodbye, an advantage brought on by ::
:: shorter overall song lengths. "A New Form of Stillness" is ::
:: jangle pop under the spell of the second wave - grimness ::
:: comes after bounciness. There are plenty of black metallers ::
:: who will jam New Order on the low, but the bassline from ::
:: "Stillness" makes AAFCC's fandom public. "Endless Skies" ::
:: (which has a vaguely trip-hop intro) and "The Sleep of Rust" ::
:: are set within a depressive black metal framework, but the ::
:: conflicting nature of grime and glory presented throughout ::
:: Goodbye adds a dimension most sadsacks can't comprehend. ::
:: "She's Drawing Mountains" may be the highlight of the album, ::
:: as the melodies flex and compete with the onslaught of ::
:: blackened drone. ::
:: ::
:: Goodbye's synth work is what raises AAFCC above the ::
:: blackgaze fray. Like most black metal keyboards, they're not ::
:: technically complex and primarily function as ambient waves; ::
:: where they differ with AAFCC is that they can be an ::
:: antagonizing force in addition to the guitars. They don't ::
:: exactly intrude upon the music, but they don't make a ::
:: graceful entrance either. In "When Night Leaves Again" ::
:: they're particularly unsettling, as if encouraging the drums ::
:: to lose their composure. "Only Skin"'s intro comes at you ::
:: like bright lights and a refreshing bucket of water dumped ::
:: on your worst hangover. The torrent that surfaces afterwards ::
:: is almost a relief. There was a period in time when black ::
:: metal bands boasted about not using keyboards - thankfully, ::
:: AAFCC weren't paying attention. ::
:: ::
:: Listening to Goodbye, it's evident that AAFCC are also ::
:: students of Lifelover, a Swedish band who were pioneers in ::
:: mixing post-punk and black metal. Before guitarist and ::
:: leader B's passing in 2011, they found a way to make ::
:: Burzum's buzz blend with the Cure's basslines, and few have ::
:: been able to match them since. Lifelover also had a knack ::
:: for somber piano melodies that would drive the song more ::
:: than the guitars on the forefront; AAFCC channel this at the ::
:: end of "Converging Towards the Light", where the piano ::
:: nearly overtakes the guitar during the final hurrah. AAFCC ::
:: aren't clones - they mutate Lifelover's ethos into a ::
:: gnarlier, and at the same time beautiful, sound. ::
:: ::
:: . _ _ . ::
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