Ethereal Shroud
They Became the Falling Ash

4.0
excellent

Review

by cryptside USER (76 Reviews)
March 14th, 2015 | 856 replies

Release Date: 2015 | Tracklist

Review Summary: The culmination of eight years of hard work, it certainly has paid off in the form of a musical journey that is as epic as it is compelling.

There is a forlorn, foreboding feeling to Ethereal Shroud's newest release. While that's nothing new for the genres that sole member Joe Hawker incorporates in his music, he takes those descriptors and matches them up with one that's a little more difficult to use: this release is absolutely majestic. They Became the Falling Ash is a near-perfect example of depressive black/doom metal, and certainly one of the best releases to grace my ears this year. Standing tall at sixty minutes and three tracks, the effortless crescendos ebb and flow in such a way that it doesn't feel as though Hawker wastes a moment on here. When he chooses to slow the affair down, there is purpose in the delicately picked guitars and orchestral background; he wastes no time to simply give the listener a reprieve from the gloomy outing. The tremolo-picked guitars and desperate roar of the vocals give plenty of variation in both speed and style, but never at the cost of it sounding tacked-on in any way. The songwriting almost feels obsessive in its focus, which makes sense given that this album has been written over the course of eight years. This lends even more to the excellent production, giving it an expansive atmosphere but still being depressive enough to seem suffocating in a way that benefits the listening experience.

When attempting to describe this album, opposite descriptors continue to pop up in my mind as the music progresses through my headphones each time. The excellent trem-picked guitar section starting around six minutes in on "Echoes in the Snow" is both intense and ethereal, and the section segues into a lush and enigmatic lull before boasting some of the most varied drumwork. The small additions to the sound such as the recurring theme of wind blowing and church bells give the epic and grandiose sound even more credence. Quite simply, it's hard to remember an album that on paper should be inaccessible that is as immediately enjoyable as this one. With two of the three tracks almost hitting twenty-five minutes each, there are certainly some people out there that won't have the attention span for the subtle and rewarding songwriting. They Became the Falling Ash is the culmination of eight years of hard work, and it certainly has paid off in the form of a musical journey that is as epic as it is compelling.

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Ethereal Shroud They Became the Falling Ash

Review

Ethereal Shroud
They Became the Falling Ash