Review Summary: An unprecedentedly introspective record in Lake Of Tears discography that shows band's capability of writing highly diverse songs without sacrificing album's impressive sonic consistency.
Distinctively distinguishable in Lake Of Tears' discography,musical world of the band's masterpiece has an inconsiderable amount of similarities with its former and latter releases.
Forever Autumn adds a lot to the noticeably propelling breakthrough "Crimson Cosmos” and meanwhile trims its metallic elements. While “Crimson Cosmos” psychedelic journey toward 70-influenced gothic corridors is a relatively flexible goth-metal version of some Fields of Nephilim tunes with less dark-hued sound and more metal over-tones, Forever Autumn steps in a soporifically smooth realm to allow the band experience a comparatively lush instrumentation like cello, flute and accordion, in which each piece plays a sharply defined role to shape a harmonic chord progression with a greater stylistic diversity.
From the Depeche-modesque mid-tempo "So Fell Autumn Rain"or jaunty "Pagan Wish" to story-telling low-key A la Wish You Were Here “forever autumn” or downcast ballad-like "The Homecoming" with its progressive nature, a quite strange aspect gives this record its unique sound: folknoir characteristics.
Folknoir influences scattered throughout the record recall tunes like Rome’s To Die Among The Stranger, Current 93’s serene moments of All The Pretty Little Horses or piano/string-driven passages used in Tenhi’s Maaäet to name a few. An easy to notice example of this, is the instrumental track “The Otherwheres” which starts off with a nostalgic piano melody with a gradually uplifting progression that then floats in layers of acoustic guitar and cello, reminder of the apocalyptic-folk vibe in tracks like “Stay” in Sol Invictus’ “In The Rain”. The closing track is also noticeable for its pastoral folk melodies, mostly played by accordion with layers of acoustic guitar and cello followed by emotive electric guitar solos that elevate the song to a wholly different level.
The frequent and yet virtuoistic electric guitar solos are mostly performed by guest musician Magnus Sahlgren, Ex-Dismember member and Tiamat’s lead guitarist during Wildhoney’s recording session who then became a full time Lake Of Tears member in 2004.
Dark romanticism elements of the lyrics are highly suggestive of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, The Raven. Unceasing presence of evil, unrequited love, never-ending bereavement, anhedonic state of mind are the main themes of the album, portrayed in a narrative style by using Symbolist images and metaphorical notions.
Forever Autumn is a flawlessly executed piece of art with a top-notch production quality that in spite of all the aforementioned similarities sounds authentically unique.
