An Autumn for Crippled Children – Everything (2011)

One of the most mysterious bands coming from the Dutch scene has to be An Autumn for Crippled Childern. After their monumental 2010 debut album “Lost”, they return with an even more impressive and lush release with “Everything”. If you though that their first album was pushing the limits of creativity and delivering in almost every single aspect, wait until you get your hands on this excellent release.

Being released on ATMF records, “Everything” opens with powerful Shoegaze influenced guitars in “Forever Never Fails”. Drawing similarities to Alcest, Lantlos and similar Post-Black Metal/Shoegaze bands, the band is greatly refining their sound from their first release. The distorted desperate screams of pain that are featured in this track (and throughout the release) greatly contrast the beauty of the music, but in a very effective and devastating manner.

“Formless” continues with the dreamy guitars and pounding bass guitar line and adds a bit more complexity and variation to the mix, making the song even more dynamic and entertaining than the first track. “Absence of Contrast” features a more direct approach and the keyboards nicely resemble the early works of Lifelover and similar bands, very depressing and suicidal… pure sweet music to our ears. The musical magic continues in tracks like “We All Fall” and “Nothing/Everything”, where the constant tempo changes and subtle hints of Post-Rock merge seamlessly into a very dense atmosphere.

One of the most appealing things about this release is the fact that while the Post-Black Metal/Shoegaze influences are evident, there is also a certain rawness and aggressiveness to the vocal sections that is very rare from releases of these genres. An Autumn for Crippled Children still need the in-your-face approach of hellish vocals in order to achieve a better contrast between these elements in the music. The other interesting aspect is that the band still experiments with different subtle elements like the trippy electronic sounds on “Her Dress as a Poem, Her Death as the Night”.

The best song of the album is “Cold Spring” and it’s dense and desolate atmosphere. It almost feels like listening to raw-Black Metal on top of an Alcest album. This song has a very natural progression and delivers a true emotional rollercoaster experience. Closing with “Rain”, the band has decided to end things with a very temperamental track that features some clean vocals and a very interesting structure weaving back and forth beautiful and tranquil sections to harsh and desolate brutal sections.

We can’t praise An Autumn for Crippled children enough since they have managed to top one impressive release with an even better one. If you liked their first album, then you will love “Everything”. The band surely knows how to create a very thick melancholic atmosphere filled with excellent guitar work and emotional song structures. Being fans of experimental music and seeing how band push things to new heights, we are highly pleased with such an excellent release.

Release: September 1st, 2011

Country: Netherlands