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Songs For A Widow -- the fifth full-length Unto Ashes album -- is an intense
and magnificent album of apocalyptic folk, medieval doom, forest metal, heavenly
voices, experimental gloomscapes, military funeral choirs, and synthetic
darkwave. This New York-based trio is absolutely alone in what they do. Who else
besides Unto Ashes could (or would) transform Covenant's synth-pop anthem "One
World One Sky" into a mournful funeral dirge? Who else would take the same song,
rebuild it, and (on the same album) re-invent it once again as a colossal
medieval dance, dripping with sweat and illuminated by fire? In fact, the album
presents many subtle "echoes" throughout; thus the listener is harkened back to
another place which may have occurred only moments -- or ages -- before.
Songs For A Widow is crafted with a diamond-cutter's precision, revealing a
delicate balance between sublime harmony and harrowing disharmony, authentic
medieval instruments and modern technology. As the album unfolds, the listener
experiences one wildly divergent song after another, astonishing juxtapositions
blending effortlessly -- impossibly -- from beginning to end. Unto Ashes'
fixation with formal compositional structures, meticulous vocal harmonies, and
their infamous obsession to sonic detail are combined to create a sense of
cohesion. Indeed, Songs For A Widow is unmistakably Unto Ashes at their finest.
Witness songs of gemlike quality such as "Occupying Force," an exquisite piece
of music which transcends time and place and is itself worthy of Rivendell, or
the album's namesake "Song For A Widow," haunted and murky as the tombs of
Mordor. Though saturated with gloom, the album achieves high contrast within
itself. Progressing from the Gregorian to the Dionysian through wild mood
swings, dirges are transformed into dances, chants into hypnotic drumbeats.
Lyrics are taken from many sources both inside and outside the band: here a
canzone of Dante, there an original poem in German or neo-Latin. Always tinged
with angst, Unto Ashes is yet unpredictable and wide-ranging in their choice of
inspirations. On the eve of the Apocalypse, as darkness descends upon us all,
Unto Ashes painfully wrings beauty from despair. Released on Projekt and
available September 19th, 2006.
1. One World (Funeral)
2. My Lord is Born
3. Convivio
4. Intacta Sum
5. The Snow Leopard
6. You Will Never Know
7. Dream of the Rood
8. The Life of this World
9. Intermezzo
10. Drei Todesarten
11. Song for a Widow
12. Occupying Force
13. I Am Untouched
14. In Memoriam Robert Luscombe
15. One World One Sky [Covenant]
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Unto Ashes - Songs For A Widow |
CD $17.97
CAD
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