We would have liked to talk about the first full-length of the Trees of Eternity as the splendid first piece of a long story; we would have liked to listen to him over and over again, imagining how many other stories he could have told us about the wonderful voice of Aleah Stanbridge. Instead, fate has been put in the way, karma, some divinity, chance, whatever you like, and Aleah has gone away about 6 months before the release of the album, taken away by cancer and, so, "Hour Of The Nightingale" turned into a sad and beautiful elegy.
Ten compositions, all of very high quality, to be enjoyed in their entirety, as a stream of consciousness, without pauses, for a true immersion in the universe created by these artists. The band makes the most of all the potentials of the genre: the slowness of the doom favors the progressive and hypnotic sink into a real trance, the gothic nuances blend perfectly with the imagery at the same time dark and fairy tale narrated in the compositions, while the delicacy and loveliness of Aleah strike straight to the heart, without attacking, but slipping between the defenses of the soul and reaching deep.(I thank Carlo Paleali for his precious words)
in this album we can listen to a singing angel and excellent composers,
thanks for this record of unusual beauty
Lyric Videos
Taking care of a record like this, knowing everything that happened before its release, makes it damned difficult to maintain the right detachment, essential to prevent emotional involvement that ends up distorting feelings and impressions.
So I will try to speak, at least on a descriptive level, of Hour Of The Nightingale as if it were the "normal" debut album of a "normal" band.
The Trees Of Eternity are born as a parallel project of Juha Raivio, guitarist and main composer of the immense Swallow The Sun, who has called, besides his old bandmate Kai Hahto on drums, the wonderful South African singer Aleah Stanbridge and Fredrik brothers and Mattias Norrman, known above all for having been for a long time two beams of Katatonia bearers.
From such a configuration could only come out a band dedicated to a dark sound but, obviously, compared to the robust melodic death death of Swallow The Sun, the most intimist and suffused part is explored, favored by the vocal timbre of Aleah, delicate, you are almost a I whisper light years away from teasing or operatic temptations and, perhaps also for this reason, completely adapted to Raivio's intentions.
Hour Of The Nightingale reveals itself, fundamentally, a treasure trove of emotions from the first to the last minute, and there can be no doubt about it, because the Finnish musician has shown in all these years of being a composer endowed with a sensitivity out of the ordinary, capable with his unmistakable touch of guitar to induce the countless fans of his main band to excite.
In The Trees Of Eternity, of course, the coordinates are very different: the guitar weaves melancholy, but everything is a slave to the voice of Stanbridge rather than much rougher than Kotamaki, and the progress of the album proceeds accordingly, for over a time of poetry and beauty that are sometimes tangible, almost physical.
Ten musical gems follow one another without a heavy hood of melancholy cease to hover over the notes produced by a group able to offer, to those who love these sounds, a unique experience for emotional involvement ...
Oh, to hell! How do you keep talking about this record without taking into account the fact that Aleah has not been with us for almost six months? How can one avoid being dragged into a vortex of sadness and despair in listening to the poignant musical plots and the penetrating and prophetic texts that she herself has written?
Starting with My Requiem, the song that opens the album, where Aleah sings "Too late you're calling my name /
I will stay "until I reach the closing room of Gallows Bird (" While the last ray of hope is lost / struggle and resistance / Nothing remains to hold back / to this existence ""), There is never a constant lump in the throat, which forces an unequal battle with his own sensitivity to try to repel tears.
The latter, long track, which comes after the acoustic splendor of Sinking Ships, really has the taste of farewell, with its dramatic atmospheres in the initial phase, which bring the sound to the most painful ruin: the guitar weaves melodies of incommensurable beauty while Aleah gives us the privilege of listening to her for the last time giving us, after the intervention of a Nick Holmes never so gloomy, a last part in which instead prevails a shivering sense of peace and awareness.
Hour Of The Nightingale would have been the same as a wonderful record, but it can not be denied that the nefarious events that precede the release have multiplied yet another power of an emotional impact already beyond the norm.
However, looking back, the idea of talking about Aleah at the present was not wrong: I want to believe that his spirit is always next to his life partner Juha, helping him overcome his loss by providing the inspiration to give other priceless emotions.
And, after all, it is thanks to the immortality conferred by art that Aleah Stanbridge will always occupy a prominent place even in our hearts of simple fans and humble chroniclers of such beauty: Hour Of The Nightingale is a perfect record that, unfortunately, will never have a following, and this is another good reason to reserve a privileged place for our public today and for years to come.
tracklist:
Align:
Aleah Stanbridge - Vocals, Lyrics, Songwriting
Juha Raivio - Guitars, Songwriting
Kai Hahto - Battery
Fredrik Norrman - Guitars
Mattias Norrman - Low
(Stefano Cavanna-metaleyes.iyezine.com- 2016)
