How Like A Winter - Beyond My Grey Wake *Italian Gothic Doom*

1. A Flower That Sears In Silence 05:50 2. All The Seasons Of Madness 07:57 3. Laying Together Again 06:52 4. Bescreen'd 10:37 5. Who Is Hiding 02:19 6. Crucifige 07:09 7. XCVII 03:19 8. The Night, Then Him 08:22 9. So Death Would Be Just A Bad Dream 07:03 Total playing time 59:28 Review from TMO (8/10) How about some music to get your thoughts away from the bright sun in the skies? How about not only having autumn on the calendar, but also to make this bright day really grey and dark? A thought that appeals to you? Ok, then just put HOW LIKE A WINTER's "...Beyond My Grey Wake" into your player! Hailing from Italy, this band does its best to crush your good mood and put the grey rope of melancholic Doom Metal around your neck, to infect you with their not exactly bubbling good mood. Still the sextet (with the nicely moody pseudonyms of Dust, Mist, Bane, Agony, Tragedy and Misery, sounds very happy, doesn't it?) acts very varied and brings us a whole string of different elements that they nicely weave into their sound, from growls over clean voices (male as female) and violin (yes, Enrique, this is something for you! - Alex) to variable rhythms, which very nicely loosen up the songs. That the folks mostly operate in slower regions is obvious and to be expected, but what they make of it is what nicely makes HOW LIKE A WINTER stand apart from many other Doom bands. Influences that you can hear right away are old THEATRE OF TRAGEDY over LACUNA COIL to Doom gods MY DYING BRIDE and all of that already on the first two songs, which already are enough to capture a genre fan completely. "A Flower That Sears In Silence" and "All The Seasons Of Madness" are truly excellent compositions, which bear this special magic in them that you need as a Gothic Doom Metal (I'll just call HOW LIKE A WINTER that now), band to open the hearts of the fans and who is not infected after these two tracks yet, I cannot help anymore either. And you have to be able to compose a ten minute masterpiece like "Bescreen'd", altogether with a very slow and melancholic atmosphere, calm and well sounding male vocals, some violin, but also a heavier and faster eruption to loosen everything up, keeping the tension high over the whole playing time, strong song, which should more than satisfy any fans of this particular direction. And after the piano instrumental "Who Is Hiding" the Italians offer us another little masterpiece in "Crucifige", where they show themselves very variable in terms of tempo and vocals and the violin adds a great accent to this song, really good, I must say! And also "The Night, Then Him" has to be mentioned, as HOW LIKE A WINTER draw all aces and enhance their Doom sound with interesting keyboard parts and faster passages, giving it some great dynamics, which very well fit into the overall context. The production can keep up with the quality of the music fully as well, which adds another dimension to the sound with emotional compositions as in the case of HOW LIKE A WINTER and further ennobles an already excellent album. If you have a soft spot for Gothic Doom Metal, you will get what you are looking for with HOW LIKE A WINTER's "â?¦Beyond My Grey Wake", trust me! (Online October 17, 2003) http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=6671 Bitrate: 192

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