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Across Tundras > Lonesome Wails from the Weeping Willow > Reviews
Across Tundras - Lonesome Wails from the Weeping Willow

Lonesome Wails From The Weeping Willow. - 60%

Perplexed_Sjel, May 20th, 2009

Bands usually don’t come much odder than Across Tundras. At first, the approach that the band took was mystifying, but unique in its own special way. Nowadays, I’m beginning to grow tired of this sound, this band and its unapproachable ways. This cold variation of rock, or whatever the hell this falls into, is too unconventional for its own good. Now, I can take experimentation. Sometimes I love it, but on this unhappy occasion, I’m really beginning to grow tired of it and frustrated by the bands continual efforts to “weird” us listens out with pretentious psychedelic soundscapes that serve only to annoy, rather than entertain. The main problem with Across Tundras is that they’re directionless and they’re unconventional. In being so, the band come across negatively instead of how I assume they’d desire - which is inspiring and unique. Though there are some intriguing moments, which do draw out positive emotions, Across Tundras don’t settle for simplicity or a sound that suits them, oh no, the band are willing to venture into obscure lands where most bands don’t dare to touch. What Across Tundras need to realise is that most bands don’t venture this far into experimentation for a simple reason - it isn’t affective or desireable to most listeners, including myself.

There is a part of me, though I’m a huge fan of them, that believes Across Tundras are transforming into a band like Nadja, in the sense that they are beginning to release numerous records in a short space of time, most of which sound similar, whilst maintaining high levels of experimentation. There is a strange transition taking place within me. Whilst I do appreciate the band attempting to create something the metal scene has never seen before, which they truly are doing, its verging on the ridiculous given its high intake of pretension and simply surreal soundscapes that confuse more than anything. This is a record that will test your will to tolerate. This is a drug trip gone confusingly wrong. This fact is confusing and odd. Across Tundras are different, but in being so, so often, they become the same. Its as if I now know what to expect from the band and with ‘Lonesome Wails From The Weeping Willow’, I’ve got exactly what I expected, but was hoping not to hear. This record, the first of two records almost secretly and surprisingly released in 2008 (I don’t think many people actually noticed Across Tundras release two records that year), is a record that tries to reignite the flames of past, where a semblance of glory was formed. With songs like ‘Blackbird Sanguine Sky’, Across Tundras are revisiting old paths that they walked long ago by using damp productions, which give a psychedelic aquatic feel to the instrumentation, which is dominated by the echoing vocals and lowly driving bass that distorts throughout the ocean worlds with emotive waves.

The sound is pleasant enough, but expected. Maybe this is some sort of ploy of the part of the band? Perhaps they’re reliving the olden days, with nostalgic mindsets and heavy hearts, but in doing so, they’re giving the listener the impression that, despite being experimental, that they will persist to experiment with sounds long since decayed and forgotten about without much apprehension on the part of the listener. The band are playing a style I let go of in the past. What’s done is done. If I had heard this record at the beginning, I’m almost sure I’d be astonished by its brave attempts and up-front-and-honest approach (especially in regards to those brilliant dual male and female vocals). These dual vocal battles take place throughout the record, though they were only sparse on previous efforts. It was in these dual vocal combinations that Across Tundras sounded at their best and this is again the case. The female vocals accompany the male leads with the same sort of sullen affect. The lyrics become obsolete as the melancholy of the melodious voices chant their themes of dark depression and nature inspired concepts shown vividly well in songs like ‘Lowlands Low & Thunderstorm Wake’. However, since the debut dealt with this sound well enough for it to be put to bed on the first go, opinions of outstanding mediocrity dominate my mind, giving me flashbacks to material I’ve heard and making me reflect over feelings I’ve once felt when listening to this band before.

The material is decent. Its technical in terms of its complex emotional issues, but is simplistically played out over adventurous soundscapes that allow production to dictate like a tyrannical leader from history. There are no additional notes to suggest this material has simply been re-recorded from the old days and if it was, I wouldn’t be surprised. In actual fact, I’d be relieved. Songs like the aforementioned, with its dank production, sombre vocals and dark expressive themes, alongside songs like the moving ‘Holes II - High River Dirge’ (which truly does give the listener images of a raging river being played out in slow motion over a black and white film in which the grey clouds are slowly turning over the sky like the hand of God, waving his fists of melancholy over the music, the listener and the world we live in) offer us with a largely acoustic based portrayal of old themes that, whilst sounding typically good and clichéd (since Across Tundras deal with themes of nature), gets lost between the short and long term memories. Is this the past? Is this the present? Or is it even a representative of the future of the band? I’m not sure. The difficulties we face when listening to this piece are with the unclear direction and inspiration behind the music. Where is it leading us and why? Perhaps the idea behind the band is to allow the listener to produce their own answers to the unnerving questions, but it doesn’t do this either. The muffled vocals, although melodious and unique, leave much to be desired in terms of answering what we crave to be answered. As the record progresses, the fresh sound becomes slowly tired and weary like an old dog who’s done too much, too fast. Take a seat Across Tundras, give it some time to settle and then come back in a year or two to release something different.