First they ‘Lost’, now it’s ‘Everything’. A fair bit of attention was garnered on this depressive blackened metal act from the Netherlands on release of their debut album just last year. It got a couple of plays from me and I was of the opinion that it was ok but not fantastic, picking up the disc for a cracking bargain of £2 in a second hand shop it got a few more but I was still pretty much unmoved. I kind of wanted to like this more, after all the groups name was clever and attention grabbing as was their imaginative artwork looking like a cross between The Orphanage and Silent Hill. So I approached the new album with everything literally to play for and wondered whether it was going to blow me away this time or not. Well you kind of have to mention the artwork as it is radically different illustrating a stark clean white background with birds and trees in a negative black. Were the lighter hues going to be reflected in the music itself?
Well no fear there, this is still a depressive beast which is evident when the jangling guitar work of ‘Forever Never Fails’ drenches things in a mournful melody. As the full instrumental weight crashes in this is bold and pretty dynamic with a sense of lushness about it. There is a glistening indie feel to the music which has you bridging the gap between old acts on 4AD Records and the more recent black shoegazers such as Alcest and Amesoeurs. Not that the fragrant tones of Neige are on hand to make this sound anything resembling pleasant, it’s a feral and fearsome full-throated scream we get from singer MXM. It’s not right up front in the recording and sounds like harsh distortion rather than words, lyrically I would hazard a guess that nothing concrete even exists; there are certainly none to be found in the debut album booklet or on Metal Archives. You can kind of discount these as nonsensical noise really as it is the melodies that AAFCC excel at and every song here has reflective and ponderous harmonies that really sound natural and organic. You can almost envisage a bright red leaf tainted by autumn falling from the branches of a tree and floating down to decay on the earth on songs like ‘Formlessness’ but perhaps that’s just the hippy in me reacting to the imminent change of season.
Played loudly the lo-fi sonic approach allows some other nuances you may not pick up on if this was down low. For instance the keyboard tinkling melodiously, adrift on ‘Absence Of Contrast’ Some spoken words come into ‘We All Fall’ but I still cannot make them out and they are torn asunder quickly by the vacuum fuelled distorted shrieks. A lovely post punk bass line fuels Nothing Everything and it seems as though each song here has something noticeable and identifiable about it. The group do sound like they are caught between two musical eras and are doing an admirable job of balancing and morphing them together. Still I feel there is something missing from this, it’s not convinced me and by the time I get to the end and ‘Rain’ an incredibly formulaic title that is pretty much what the album has become. Sure there is a fair bit of atmosphere about this and it is well played and constructed, perhaps the group just have not realised their potential yet. I would say that although still not blown away I am slightly more enamoured by AAFCC now and if I see this album at a cheap price in that record stores hidden away bargain section I will be grabbing this for sure.
http://www.myspace.com/crippledchildren2009
Pete Woods
MTUK HOME
