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| Who knew they had Winter in Tasmania? |
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Astral Winter, a one man project from Tasmania, plays a very tasteful, regal sounding brand of atmospheric Black Metal. He uses a drum machine, but obviously takes painstaking steps to give variety and depth to the percussion. Heavy on synths and clean guitars, but lacking any clean singing (bravo), he walks a fine line between over the top orchestration and heartfelt, majestic metal. For one man, this is very impressive. Apparently, he parted ways with his vocalist shortly before this recording. I think he does a fine job, using a mid range black metal rasp to good atmospheric effect. Many aspects of the songwriting drift dreamily between different shades of melodic metal, but the vocals manage to remind you where you are aesthetically every time. Though this is not my usual territory, I was struck by the bombastic level of grandeur and profound range of emotion, all expressed so cohesively and with excellent flow. I'll have this in my ipod when I'm shoveling grey snow in smelly Long Island the next few months.
Astral Winter myspace (link to free EP here)
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