Falaise : As Time Goes By"

A Sad Sadness Song is becoming one of my favorite labels as I know I can depend on them to bring me melancholy.  Their first album that released themselves is now being officially released. While this band hails from Italy their sweeping fusion of post-rock and Black metal will make you think they came from France. They songs flow together more like classical compositions with the vocals buried almost to obscurity behind the shimmering walls of soaring guitars that still manage to come across as being heavy rather than the kind of meandering in atmosphere that the bulk of bands stumble into when attempting this fusion.  The drumming to "Lost Moments" give the song a lighter indie rock feel until it collides into the blast beats. Their guitar melodies sprinkled over even the song's harshest moments and they return to to the them established at the beginning of the song.

When they lash into black metal of a purer darkness of "No Destination" , they might be plenty mean, but lose some of the songwriting smarts by dumbing it down to get heavy. This makes them sound more like every other black metal band with a little atmosphere to them. The title track finds a better balance, though it leans more towards the ambiance of their post-rock side. Here the guitar is more thoughtful and a delicate piano melody is allowed to unfold. This song drones on while other landscapes evolve around it. The song that follows feels like an extension of this song rather than a song on it's own two feet.'Pointless" holds it own as a song, though it might not be as powerful of an expression that we heard earlier in the album.

"The Lump In My Throat" gives a more energetic take on post-rock. It still ebbs and flows with a sense of dynamics, and is a pretty well written song over all, perhaps one of the album's best moments. There is a more droning rock in the post- rock throb of "Waiting Time". I like how this song shifts at the three minute mark. I'll round this album up to an 8.5, there are some solid songs and sounds on this and they find a place where metal can meet post-rock in a place that doesn't feel like Deafheaven's hand me downs.