Okay, I’m totally honest here. I like Grey Waters' Below the Ever Setting Sun. I have previouly dissed Austere’s take on emotional rock/pop on their last album To Lay Like Old Ashes but on the other hand, I am and have always been a big sucker for Katatonia’s music. On this little EP released early this year, Grey Waters hits the right keys and awakes the little angsty me in me. And I enjoy it.
Consisting of Austere and Woods of Desolation members, the sound here is still (though very remotely) close to black metal - this is most apparent in the guitar department where melancholic riffs are a massive wall of buzzing sound - but other than that we’re dealing with a rock-based EP with simple beats and clean vocals. Think of Tonight’s Decision era Katatonia with modern production, and you have a vague picture of the record, both musically and lyrically.
Despite being full of sorrow, maybe even on excessively sugary levels, Below the Ever Setting Sun is really powerful, epic and massive. While ”Say Goodbye” is a general 4-minute rocky song, ”Broken”, ”The Truth in Your Eyes” and the title track rise to symphonic climaxes near their ends, so we’re not exactly dealing with any unambitious compositions, quite the opposite. Clean male vocals are put to good use and it never sounds too cheesy. But lyrically there is some unwanted cheesiness, something that can easily happen in a style like this - can’t help finding lines like ”what once was is now forever lost” and ”just say goodbye” a bit tacky.
Grey Waters has crafted a rather impressive debut EP, and I’m looking forward to hearing their upcoming full-length. I much prefer this emotional rock under a band name of its own instead of it being stamped on Austere’s name, a band that for me was always rooted in black metal. Below the Ever Setting Sun is a recommendable EP for those into emotional and fairly accessible rock or metal.
Consisting of Austere and Woods of Desolation members, the sound here is still (though very remotely) close to black metal - this is most apparent in the guitar department where melancholic riffs are a massive wall of buzzing sound - but other than that we’re dealing with a rock-based EP with simple beats and clean vocals. Think of Tonight’s Decision era Katatonia with modern production, and you have a vague picture of the record, both musically and lyrically.
Despite being full of sorrow, maybe even on excessively sugary levels, Below the Ever Setting Sun is really powerful, epic and massive. While ”Say Goodbye” is a general 4-minute rocky song, ”Broken”, ”The Truth in Your Eyes” and the title track rise to symphonic climaxes near their ends, so we’re not exactly dealing with any unambitious compositions, quite the opposite. Clean male vocals are put to good use and it never sounds too cheesy. But lyrically there is some unwanted cheesiness, something that can easily happen in a style like this - can’t help finding lines like ”what once was is now forever lost” and ”just say goodbye” a bit tacky.
Grey Waters has crafted a rather impressive debut EP, and I’m looking forward to hearing their upcoming full-length. I much prefer this emotional rock under a band name of its own instead of it being stamped on Austere’s name, a band that for me was always rooted in black metal. Below the Ever Setting Sun is a recommendable EP for those into emotional and fairly accessible rock or metal.
3,5 / 5
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