FOREVER AUTUMN

3.5 stars. Since their last release "A Crimson Cosmos" they've added a keyboardist to the band while we get some guest guitar, accordian, flute and cello. Not a big change in the music from the previous album, this one's a little quieter overall. Most fans of this band will tell you this is their masterpiece, their favourite. The pictures in the liner notes are a little ridiculous with the guy in black robes and hood with his face painted white, I guess he's supposed to be "death" or something. Then there's this young blonde girl and her bed out in the middle of the forest in autumn. She ends up walking away with the "death dude" holding his hand. Her empty bed is on the album cover. I love dark atmospheric music but to be honest this album has neither of those characteristics. It's just fairly mellow with some nice heavy passages.The vocalist reminds me of the singer for METALLICA only he never yells, he just sings (usually) in a reserved manner.

"So Fell Autumn Rain" opens with cello before a really good rhthym kicks in before a minute. Vocals join in.This is both heavy and uplifting. It settles with piano 3 minutes in before kicking back in late. "Hold On Tight" opens with reserved vocals and strummed guitar. The guitar solo 2 1/2 minutes in is a slow moving beauty as synths wash in and out. It ends as it began. "Forever Autumn" also opens with strummed guitar and reserved vocals. A fuller sound arrives a minute in. Cello comes and goes. "Pagan Wish" along with the opening track are my favourites.They both have more energy than the rest.Some ripping guitar after 3 minutes.

"Otherwheres" opens with thunder and rain as piano joins in. When the strummed guitar comes in around 1 1/2 minutes the storm stops. You can just tell the sun comes out as we start to hear the birds singing and people laughing. Cool track. "The Homecoming" has some flute in it and an acoustic guitar solo followed by an electric one. "Come Night I Reign" is a good song that kicks in around a minute. "Demon You / Lily Anne" opens with cello followed by a fairly heavy rhythm with vocals. I like the synths. "To Blossom Blue" is laid back with keys, vocals and accordion. Cello late.

This is a good album and it would be a good place to start if you want to check out their sound.

It's a big surprise to find this band here!

Lake of Tears are my favourite gothic band since years, just because they are not the usual gothic band... But the surprise is that they are not progressive! They started like a curious gothic-death metal band, with a very dinstinctive sound, taking some 70's elements in the using of keyboards and some soft melodies. But after two worthy albums, they changed their style almost radically to follow an even better direction. They were still gothic, but the death metal elements and the raw guitars where gone in "A Crimson Cosmos", replacing them by a great using of keyboards and Pink Floyd influences, creating two of the best gothic metal albums of all time, the named "A Crimson Cosmos", and their best release to date, "Forever Autumn".

So "Forever Autumn" is just that, a gothic metal album with a ot of 70's influences, great lyrics, and 9 excellent tracks. You will not find progressive here, because this band is not progressive... There are a lot of metal bands wich are more progressive than Lake of Tears, like Amorphis, and they are not here. And of course, they are not the kind of progressive gothic metal you can expect if you enjoy bands like Green Carnation or Lacrimosa. They are truly progressive bands... Lake of Tears aren't, although I like them more than any other gohtic metal band I've heard.

Best tracks: So Fell Autumn Rain (a trademark Lake of Tears song...), Forever Autumn (marvellous acoustic song...), The Homecoming (another acoustic masterpice, with wonderful lyrics...), Come Night I Reign (another impressive 70's influences gothic milestone...) and To Blossom Blue (a perfect ending, for a perfect album...).

Conclusion: I really don't know why this band is here, because they are not prog... There are a lot bands out there, like Amorhpis, wich deserve to be here a thousand times before Lake of Tears. Nevertheless, I'll comment their albums, because I really love them. And I think "Forever Autumn" is their masterpiece. Following the style of the previous "A Crimson Cosmos", but with an extra dosis of melancholy and acoustic passages, Lake of Tears made the most beautiful gothic metal album I've heard. Strongly recommended for evevryone who enjoys good music, but avoid it if you are searching prog, because you'll hardly find here.

My rating: *****

Forth album in their catalogue from 1999 named Forever autum is a less intristing relese for me as it was the prior ones. The sound was changing , don't know if in better or worse for them and critics, but in worse for me as listner, why??. Because this album is much mellower than the early works , even to acustic in places, is like they are bored to play their old metal from the first two albums and try something new ( a la Tiamat same period), I don't know why they turned so drastic from Headstones sound, who was a real solid album to this floydian metalic aproach. The album as whole is not bad, some good moments I can trace here like So Fell Autumn Rain, To Blossom Blue or Hold on tight, the rest are only ok nothing soecial in my book. Maybe they change the manner of composing because after Headstones they lost the guitar player and was hired another one Ulrik Lindblom and even a keybordist was invited to do hid work on Crimson cosmos and aswell here. Here we have some cello passages among traditional instruments , some flute arrangemets that gives a special atmosphere to the album, but even with these addings the album is not fantastic to my ears.The album is definetly more progressive in musical terms, than previous works , but less intristing, to much mellow passages. So I will give 2.5 rounded to 3 just beacause I like Lake of Tears and because is not as bad as might be at first listing, is the type of album that needs some spins even if is mellower than the raw materials from the beggining. Good album but nothing special as many said, even the cover art is less intristing than on prior albums, that shows exactly what is on the album, lazyness and sadness, no more Headstones or Crimson cosmos anymore.

Gothic metal's Lake of Tears began to steer their sound in a more mellow direction here, setting the groundwork for the more progressive direction their work would take in future. The arrival of Christian Saarinen on keyboards allows them to expand their sound and go for a blend of gothic metal and neo-Floydian material of the sort Anathema like to play, though I find this a richer and more interesting prospect than Anathema themselves usually are. Pleasant stuff, though a few of the songs do tend to be a little anonymous and forgettable and a little more variation in the sound might have helped make the album more distinctive.