Here and After

I guess if there was ever a gothic metal "scene" (not that saccharine pseudo-gothic metal Within Temptation bullshit), it would have come out of Sweden. Tiamat would be the only terribly well known band to be a part of that scene, with their mid 90s-2000s albums, and then a handful of completely fucking unknown bands who tried to follow in their footsteps (or just started playing the same style completely independently, like In the Colonnades, one of the earliest gothic metal bands in existence). Obviously, there really wasn't a gothic metal scene, unless Tiamat can be called a scene in and of themselves; metal with heavy goth rock influence has just never been a terribly successful or popular thing. Still, having heard The Mist of Avalon's Here and After, I'm surprised it's quite this obscure; it's not an album I'd expect to be a chart topper, but considering the quality and the freshness of the style here, it's strange that apparently absolutely no one other than the band themselves and perhaps their mothers know about it. I myself stumbled upon them not entirely by accident and not entirely on purpose, either; it was during one of my mining expeditions via an advanced search for gothic metal bands, and I first heard the album's ballad, "A Beautiful Nightmare," which, while the other songs are very strong on average, is still probably the most memorable tune here; it's simply a breathtaking ballad. I knew I had to hear the rest of the album after that, and I was not disappointed.

The descriptor I used in the review title of 'epic gothic metal' is musically accurate, by the way - it's not just me using hyperbole to boost the reader's opinion of the album. Within the concept of epic metal; that is, metal which has a more 'vast' sound, often deals with historical themes and battles, and has a singer that seems to give a 'storyteller' type of delivery (that's loosely how I define epic heavy/power metal, anyway), Here and After is epic gothic metal 100%. Of course, with a band name like The Mist of Avalon, it would be reasonable to guess that they have medieval/Arthurian themes, which would probably be correct (there aren't specific references, but based on the story told through the lyrics and the mood of the music, it would make sense), at least on this album. In my experience, metal that has Arthurian themes tends to be cool on average (of course, perhaps that's just because I don't remember metal with Arthurian themes which I dislike), but being in company like Blind Guardian ("A Past and Future Secret," "Mordred's Song"), The Gates of Slumber ("To Kill and Be King"), Manilla Road ("The Ninth Wave") and Grave Digger ("Excalibur") definitely can't be a bad thing. In short, Arthurian themes in metal are always cool as fuck, and having Arthurian themes often helps make a band cool as fuck. I back this up with the fact that the other bands I mentioned are cool as fuck, and this album is also cool as fuck.

Okay, okay - the music, specifically. Vocalist Aram Yildiz is in many ways similar to your classic goth rock/gothic metal vocalist (Andrew Eldritch of Sisters of Mercy, Johan Edlund of Tiamat on their goth rock/metal albums, Ulf Lenneman of In the Colonnades), but he has a bit more than that as well. "A Beautiful Nightmare" shows us that he's highly capable of changing his tone to suit the song (I know that's the second time I've mentioned it already; be patient, I'll get to it in depth eventually), and he also has a fair amount of personality that shines through on every song. The album, by the way, brings us into and out of a large variety of moods; it presents much larger a landscape than any other gothic rock or metal album I've heard, which typically holds to a fairly similar mood throughout a given release, perhaps switching among two or three at most. Here, the songs vary about as widely as the genre allows for, and of course the ballad isn't gothic rock or metal at all. Really, I'd consider this nothing less than a minor masterpiece, which makes it all the more bewildering that it is so utterly obscure. It could be a concept album, for all I know; there's no overt progression in the lyrics, but the music creates a buildup of energy and conflict throughout the album, eventually topping out and then resolving in the last couple of songs. I won't cover the mood of every song individually in detail, but the general progression and aspects therein will be covered thoroughly.

Coming into the album it sounds like mostly traditional, albeit fancy, gothic metal, with synths that for some reason sound like the theme song to The X-Files (but still works in the context, haha), but before long you can tell this is trying to be something much more than traditional gothic metal. There are several layers at any one time, always at least separate bass, guitar, and vocal melodies, and most of the time at least one other melody, which might be synths, a second guitar, an acoustic guitar, or female vocalist Helin Dogan. The biggest single emotional theme I could pick out here is "melancholy," which seems to be the core feeling in all but a couple of tracks here. "This Time" and "Circle of Lust" are the only songs I'd refer to as particularly upbeat, and are closer to goth rock than metal, but are still well-done, and, if not some of the better songs on the album, still very enjoyable, which honestly is more a testament to just how good the album is on the whole. "Tears" starts out sounding more goth rock-ish, but, like "Oceans," is heavier and dark and just has more depth to it overall. However, it's really after the first 3 full songs that the album fully picks up and you get the sense that it's something truly special.

The opening riff of "The Madman" immediately gives you a sense that we're not in Kansas anymore, so to speak. That sorrowful, reflective, sort of doomy riff takes a fairly large departure from previous tracks and turns into a somber requiem that includes flute and has some dirge-like multi-tracking going on, if the previous "layers" I mentioned weren't enough for you. The level of complexity rises from perhaps slightly above average to "damn, son!", in other words. And things just continue picking up, not slipping below that level again except for "Circle of Lust" which, as I mentioned, is still quite cool. The atmosphere begins to morph from simple melancholy into a tale full of regret, fear, deep emotional pain, dark introspection, and mourning all in a whirlwind. Really, were I to ignore the first 3 songs and "Circle of Lust," I'd say the album was damn near perfect, reaching a truly real and relatable atmosphere which is not dissimilar from that of, say Holocaust's Covenant (I don't think I even have to say what that say about this album, if you've seen my review of Covenant) or Kamelot's Epica; to put what I said near the beginning a different way, the variety of emotions mixed throughout is so organic and well-built that it feels positively, fundamentally human, which is also something I said for Covenant.

Without (trying to be) going into enormous detail, I'll simply point out the top album highlights now - "A Beautiful Nightmare," as promised, and the utterly brilliant album closer, "A Wolf's Lullaby." The former is...well, utterly amazing, I suppose. The atmosphere is like almost nothing I've ever heard before; reflective of one's entire life, right before one's death, maybe. The lyrics certainly seem suggestive of that, although I think the music itself would convey it even without them. In the context of Arthurian legend, I can't help but picture Mordred, lying on the battlefield as he dies from the wound inflicted by Arthur, evaluating his life, mortality, etc. It accomplishes things on what feels like a higher plane of functioning from most other music, though; to me, the only songs that have produced anything similar are Crimson Glory's "Lost Reflection" and Psychotic Waltz's "Halo of Thorns" (and perhaps a few other tunes from A Social Grace. Those songs are about insanity, and while this isn't, exactly, it's...I don't know, exactly. It pierces the most fundamental recesses of my mind, perhaps something I can truly grasp at some basic, fundamental level of myself which most songs don't penetrate. Before I get even more carried away, let's move on, finally, to "A Wolf's Lullaby."

The song feels rather unorthodox, with a very mysterious and eerily "final" sounding opening riff which has a strange sound, maybe some palm-muting technique, I'm not entirely sure as I'm not an expert on instruments/instrumental techniques, but it's simultaneously highly bizarre and effective. Yildiz croons alongside this melody and a bass line for much of the song - probably the most minimalist and yet still incredibly evocative track of the album, another testament to the songwriting skills of the band. It ends by putting a piano melody and then more of Helin Dogan's vocals on top of the fading previous melodies, and is just so mind-bogglingly perfect both as a clinic on how to do simple songwriting well and as an album closer, it leaves me breathless. I haven't heard either of the EP's or the full-length The Mist of Avalon have put out since Here and After, but if they're of anything approaching this quality, they too, will be worth a listen. Instead of saying "for fans of gothic metal," or "for fans of epic metal," or "for fans of Arthurian legend," I'll say, if you've gotten this far in the review, you need to fucking listen to this album, simple as that. I will not rest until this album is revered as much as it deserves to be, which means I'll likely be touting its praises for a long, long time.