YOU ARE THERE

I was surprised at how mellow this music was, especially "A Heart Has Asked For The Pleasure" , "Are You There ?" , and "The Remains Of The Day". The other three longer tracks start out quiet but build slowly to an all out sonic assault.There are 3 guest musicians playing violin as well as 2 guest musicians playing cello, while the band is made up of 2 guitarists, a bass player and a drummer.

"The Flames Beyond The Cold Mountain" slowly builds with gentle guitar melodies until 6 minutes in when we have a full sound. At 8 1/2 minutes we have a powerful wall of crushing sound. The song calms back down to the same gentle guitar melodies from earlier before we are blasted again 12 minutes in. "A Heart Has Asked For The Pleasure" is a pastoral song that features intricate and delicate guitar throughout. "Yearning" opens quietly with gently picked guitar that makes me think of the title. 4 minutes in it starts to build as the drums come in. It gets emotional for me 6 1/2 minutes in for some reason before they are on fire a minute later.They burn for over 4 minutes ! Then it calms back down.

"Are You There ?" is a beautiful song with violin and cello as it slowly builds. Again there is so much emotion here after 6 minutes. It settles back down as the strings are joined by the guitars. "The Remains Of The Day" is another beauty with piano melodies and what sounds like rain falling. "Moonlight" starts off on the wrong foot for me as I just can't get into the first 3 minutes.Then the strings come in followed eventually by the guitar as it builds slowly 7 minutes in. The rest of the song becomes very intense. Nice.

I really like this band a lot and in particular this cd. Highly recommended !