Autumnal Winds - Venerari Sacra Mysteria 2005

I want to bring to light a rather overlooked demo from a talented band called Autumnal Winds from Minnesota. This demo satisfies well a very melodic, vivid and well composed style reminiscent of early Greek and Swedish metal bands of the early to mid 90's and not the ultra-produced hyperspeed Necrofaggot bands that come from these countries today. The music bears a strong resemblance to early era Ophthalamia.

The melodic harmony of the lead and rhythm guitars as well as the dual vocal style are the main selling points, but also note-able here is a superbly clean and candid recording. This lends even more credibility to the sparse and lush atmosphere achieved. The mid paced songs travel the listener fluently through well played, unique and remarkably stylish riffery which range vastly from many different known techniques. The song writing is not very repetitive, and incredibly solid. Its very apparent that a lot of thought and creativity inspired this release. Among all this very pleasing and arid listening is my only complaint about the album. The drum machine sound is rather cheesy. Its not so much that it sounds all that bad, but I know that this album would be helped greatly if this were a real drummer playing these parts. This is why I'm incredibly thankful that Tanner is re-recording these songs with his new band Obsequiae which emplores an incredibly talented drummer who is in also in a band called Mortality. The drum machine kit ued could be incredibly worse as I have heard on other albms, but here its just very dry and drab. On a final note there is a prevalent use of keyboard which accompanies well and further embellishes the remarkable guitar work.

If this sounds of interest to you at all I urge you to give this a listen if you can and also be sure to check out the excellent Obsequiae when their debut comes out. You can already hear a few remade versions by following this link: http://www.myspace.com/obsequiae Also Obsequiae has agreed to let me do an interview with them once the demo comes out, so be sure to check that out once its completed.