The Morningside - The Wind, the Trees and the Shadows of the Past
Posted on August 14, 2008 at 8:00 am by admin
The world of metalgaze can be pretty damn good when “Oceanic” by Isis or “The Beyond” by Cult Of Luna become a soundtrack to ones life. Unfortunately there’s been quite a few bands getting into the mix, some of them getting pretty close to cloning. The reason why I bring that up is because The Morningside would fit perfectly into that world, yet they sound like they haven’t had any exposure to it. Instead they starts off with some long, building doom/death songs heavily inspired by Paradise Lost that moves at a good mid-pace, and throw in some very catchy melodies, but’s that’s not where this ends. Instead, the album morphs becoming lighter and lighter, slower and more somber, yet the change comes perfectly natural. From clean shimmering guitars to acoustics in a windy landscape, the feeling is a sparse, wide open field in the middle of winter. The vocals, be they harsh chants or clean signing are few and far between, but do serve the purpose of giving the album some direction, sort of like signposts along the trip.
Make no mistake, these guys are going into any radio-friendly territory, no matter how light they might get, as the 3 songs that really make up the bulk of this album (there’s an into and outro as well) hang around 10 minutes long. The overall album however is only 40 minutes. It is great to hear an album that has to be played from start to finish up to an hour long (or even to the 74 minute limit), but lets be honest, it’s difficult for some to dedicate that much time just to sit down and listen to an album. Not only that, but keeping the effort down to 40 minutes really makes it easier to swallow for the average listener of underground music who’s looking to bite into doom or metalgaze.
It might be tough to get your hands on this import, but well worth it!
Released August 11th, 2007
The Morningside Official Website
Badmoodman Music at MySpace
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