I threw down the gauntlet when reviewing the 2015 release by the Netherlands’ An Autumn for Crippled Children, entitled The Long Goodbye. While it represented a tasteful refinement of their prior work, it was already indicating markers of stagnation and I challenged them to develop for their follow-up. Such follow-up arrived disturbingly quickly, and it was exactly the flaccid, formulaic release I had hoped it wouldn’t be. Recognizing my own fatigue with the AAfCC sound, I’ve consciously ignored releases since then which include a couple of EPs and a 2018 full-length. 2020 has arrived and with it their eighth record called All Fell Silent, Everything Went Quiet. Has this gap afforded sufficient space and time for us to enjoy each other once more?
The progression of 4 years and a few skipped releases yields a form of AAfCC which is even more indebted to The Cure than I remember their old form being. They were hardly a band which was ever thoroughbred black metal but their transformation into a truly genre-blending smoothie must now be nearing completion. All Fell Silent sits under the ‘post-black’ umbrella but the ribs (spokes?) include black metal, darkwave, shoegaze and dreampop. This is an album which aims to conjure an overall sensation, and that sensation is a strange dreaminess despite its shrieked vocals and blast beats. I don’t buy into this record being funereal or melancholic as although it’s not happy, the big, simplistic, synth melodies are too hopeful for that. This tension between the heavy tools used and the emotions invoked works well in general and leaves a more positive than negative taste in my mouth each time I finish the record.
But All Fell Silent still suffers from the same problems as prior releases. While the atmosphere generated appears to be the ultimate goal, as opposed to moment-to-moment thrills, the lack of moment-to-moment thrills ensures that my enjoyment will always be limited. The net position is that tracks bleed together; melodies are not sufficiently distinctive between songs to allow any particular part to stand out. Some may query how I dare to criticize a lack of distinctive riffs and songs for music which is based around simplicity, clarity and “energy flows,” but this is a metal-adjacent album and as such I hold metal-adjacent expectations. This is not a record with notable riffs and even the simpler synth melodies which overlay proceedings typically sound interchangeable.
The production doesn’t help this lack of distinction across the record. While the overall aesthetic is key to the AAfCC sound, the echoing vocals, reedy guitar tone and reverberating synths means there’s lots of overlapping instrumentation and feedback at any one time. Only the drums sound relatively crisp (though still not as crisp as most other rock or metal), while the other instruments blend into a warm, wet but muddy mix. The moments excepting this trend tend to be where the big, simple synth melodies are draped over the top as they’re quite hard to miss. For example, “Paths” has such a melody over its chorus which rises above the hazy mix. These segments stand out a little more, but it feels like lazy song-writing to rely on this approach to forge memorability and emotional power.
Despite my criticisms, All Fell Silent is not as offensively bland as the last AAfCC record I reviewed. Furthermore, the mild sonic progression demonstrated and an overall response of ‘this is reasonably enjoyable’, means I will confer on it this middling rating. But more than anything it accentuates my excitement for the (LONG FUCKING OVERDUE) next album by Lantlôs which is due this year. It may yet turn into a great year for post-black metal.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Prosthetic Records
Websites: facebook.com/aafcc | aafcc.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: May 1st, 2020
