Genre:  Neoclassical

01 Dies Irae
02 Keep me here
03 Spirit
04 A Joyless Occasion
05 Thrush and Wake
06 Yearning for the Tide
07 The Funeral Bazaar
08 Canticle
09 The Last King Falls
10 The Hallowing

Whenever I hear Autumn Tears has released a new album, I am dieing to hear it until the second it arrives to me in the mailbox.  I have followed this band's career from my first listen on their 2000 full-length Love Poems for Dying Children: Act III - Winter and the broken Angel.  I own everything that the band has done up to this point and my only regret is that there isn't more material to be found from them.  Autumn Tears' compositions continue to become more complex and more sophisticated as time passes along.  They have finally begun adding new members such as the fantastic Clarinet extraordinaire from Maudlin of the Well, Terran Olson, and a previously unknown fellow on classical guitar by the name of Greg Ball.  This is a band, and even label, that I could not imagine my life for the past 5 years without knowing.  Everything they release is amazing.

Autumn Tears was a musician's dream that was realized at first in the Autumn of 1995.  Back then Autumn Tears consisted of just two members:  The current mastermind Ted Tringo, and now ex-female vocalist Erika Swinnich.  It was through this initial partnership that the very essence of Autumn Tears was born, and through hardships and Ted's own will to push this project, the music has thrived and today Autumn Tears has released now 5 full-lengths.  In the beginning the sound was almost cheesey, with a more low-budget sounding keyboard and much less real instrumentation.  But the delicacy of the music Ted had created combined with the promising nature of what was to come in later years made the experience not only listenable, but very enjoyable.  Autumn Tears has always had a darker, nearly evil appeal to their music.  With much pipe organ and questionable at best lyrics, the project put forth an image of an almost murderous madness.

Today, we see Autumn Tears in a light with a much more adult sound.  With newer instrumentation and members, it sounds as if Ted is finally realizing his dream with a quartet of very talented and serious musicians.  The Hallowing finds Autumn Tears no longer being just one man's fight to release beautiful sophisticated and dark music, but a complete entity unto its own.  With more instruments such as upright contrabase and real flutes and clarinets thrown into the mix, the sound becomes thicker and more lifelike in appeal.  A project like this has been my dream as well for many years now but I simply do not have the time nor financial resources to put something of this majestic magnitude together.  I personally look up to Ted Tringo as a mentor, and, quite honestly, the beauty found on this release is almost too much for me to take.  Music does not get better than this.

I suppose the real thickened state of atmosphere throughout this album is also brought about by the session members whom were welcomed into this release.  Through them we are greeted by french horn, violin and viola, and an instrument ever present throughout the album, the oboe.  There is even a session harpist on the title track, "The Hallowing".  The beauty in the music on The Hallowing is only thickened by the always incredible artwork featured throughout the booklet.  It is hard to tell just how these images were made but they are an aesthetically pleasing example of rainy evenings here in America.

I leave you with this word of advice.  If you want music to continue surviving on this planet, if you want to be able to continue hearing beauty in the aural levels of existence, if you want to see music thrive and continue to exist, please support these smaller labels.  I am a black metal fan first and foremost, but let's face it, black metal productions and instrumentation has so little put into it in the face of an album like this.  There has probably been years of work put into these songs, and a great deal of money at that.  Dark Symphonies and their affinity for supporting those musically diverse, genius, and talented bands, deserves your support.  I know I say this a lot for good albums, but I do not want to see a label like this one fade away because people in this era do not realize the importance of music because humans are pathetic lazy bacteria whom would rather sit on their collective fat arses and download music from crooked journalists who post these promos online than actually help the music they love by paying for the releases.  Music is the soundtrack to our lives.  Without it, this world is grey.  Support your underground music.