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MIDAS FALL

Post Rock/Math rock • United Kingdom


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Midas Fall picture
Midas Fall biography
Founded in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK in 2008

A Scottish female rock duo MIDAS FALL were founded in 2008 by Elisabeth HEATON (guitar, voices) and Rowan BURN (guitar), that have characteristic Gothic style and epic, theatrical voices. In their early days they've supported Japanese post-rockers MONO and provided material "MovieScreens" for BBC3's Lip Service soundtrack. Their debut album "Eleven. Return And Revert" was released via Monotreme Records in April 2010. In 2011 they've completed their first European tour e.g. Belgium's Dunk Festival, Germany's Dark Spring Festival, or shows in Athens, Sofia, Glasgow, Manchester or London. Whilst gigging around Europe they've launched "Wilderness" (Apr. 2013), "The Menagerie Inside" (Sep. 2015), "Evaporate" (Apr. 2018) so far.

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MIDAS FALL discography


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MIDAS FALL top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

4.33 | 6 ratings
Eleven. Return And Revert
2010
4.67 | 11 ratings
Wilderness
2013
3.88 | 8 ratings
The Menagerie Inside
2015
4.59 | 16 ratings
Evaporate
2018
4.33 | 14 ratings
Cold Waves Divide Us
2024

MIDAS FALL Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

MIDAS FALL Videos (DVD, Blu-ray, VHS etc)

MIDAS FALL Boxset & Compilations (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

MIDAS FALL Official Singles, EPs, Fan Club & Promo (CD, EP/LP, MC, Digital Media Download)

4.00 | 1 ratings
Century EP
2009
4.00 | 1 ratings
As Our Blood Separates
2012
0.00 | 0 ratings
Fluorescent Lights
2013
4.00 | 1 ratings
Cover Songs
2023

MIDAS FALL Reviews


Showing last 10 reviews only
 Cold Waves Divide Us by MIDAS FALL album cover Studio Album, 2024
4.33 | 14 ratings

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Cold Waves Divide Us
Midas Fall Post Rock/Math rock

Review by BrufordFreak
Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

5 stars The amorphous Scottish trio is back with its first album in five years--since the masterpiece that is Evaporate.

1. "In the Morning We'll Be Someone Else" (4:09) Post Rock perfection. This one opens with a delicate and spacious palette of atmospheric sound before spaced-out drums, guitar harmonics, and the occasional guitar power chord over/within which the great Elizabeth Heaton sings in her voice that sounds like it comes from the Queen of the Underworld. The song keeps building and building--especially with the cymbal crashes and additional sustained guitar note play embellished by axe-master Rowan Burn in the fourth and fifth minutes. (10/10)

2. "I Am Wrong" (5:12) true Post Rock with all of its walls of sound in their dynamic glory, getting better, stronger, more powerful, with each minute of the song's progression. Elizbeth's vocals are amazing--using words that strike one like a cascade of arrows! I have to, here, thank Michael Hamilton for his love of metal music--and Rowan for her excellent acquisition of drumming skills/choices (as well as her awesome duet of guitar arpeggi). When Elizabeth pierces us with the her long-held vowel howls (within the lyrics) and then the "O-o-ooooh" screams in the second half, I think I've been seduced against my will she And then if you are fortunate enough to see the band's video of the song on YouTube with dancer Amber Dollin's extraordinary performance of videographer Stephen Alexander's Possession-inspired cinematography, you know why this is one of the best songs--maybe the best song--of 2024! (10/10)

3. "Salt" (5:28) a more tenderly-rendered song though it is still fraught with angst and latent danger like all of the other music from this album. Elizabeth's performance(s) are awesome--especially that background siren's voice. This is another true Post Rock song. Too bad the vocals don't soar more and that the instruments don't crescendo as high as usual. (8.875/10)

4. "In this Avalanche" (4:04) gentle wooing of the listener with plenty of heavy-hearted words. The music is solid though very slow and drawn out in its subtle and deliberate build. (8.875/10)

5. "Point of Diminishing Return" (5:00) an interesting song for the weird warbling effect imposed upon the lead synthesizer--the instrument that presents and carries the melody over the course of the first half of the song. All of the heaviness backs off at the half-way mark so that the music can reform and rebuild--this time with "cello," guitars and synths sharing the polyphonic re-presentation of the melodies. Were it not for Elizabeth's wordless vocalese in the fifth minute this would be a complete instrumental! (9/10)

6. "Monsters" (4:18) after a very delicate vocal in the sparsely-populated atmospheric opening, the song gets much better in the mostly-instrumental second half. If I weren't so deaf to lyrics, this typically-emotional vocal performance might strike deeper chords. As it is, it feels more like a nice Unforgettable Fire-era U2 song. (8.75/10)

7. "Atrophy" (4:01) opens with a very pregnant, very delicate feeling sonic field--double bass-sounding MIDI keyboard notes and heavily-reverved sustained ("infinity" Michael Brook called it) guitar notes in the background. Elizabeth introduces her Celine Dion-like style voice with heart-wrenching precision. At the end of the second minute her voice gets a little meatier while the soundscape remains ambient heavily-repressed metal. Extraordinary performance from Elizabeth; I don't know if I've ever heard quite this kind of stretched out, almost-operatic of a vocal performance from her before. The insidious build in the sonic realm hear comes from layers upon layers of synthesized chords instead of strumming guitars. (9.25/10)

8. "Cold Waves Divide Us" (5:54) softly bounding keyboard chord notes and ominous distorted guitar chords in the background support Elizabeth's etheric, child- (or ghost-) like vocal here. The drums and electric guitar that arrive in the third minute are by far the most dynamic/aggressive of the whole album. Elevated by the awesome ending. (9.75/10)

9. "Little Wooden Boxes" (5:23) a palette and feel that reminds me of the spacious latency of Chris Isaac's 1991 world mega hit, "Wicked Games," yet Rowan, Michael and Elizabeth have taken the soundscape into an entirely different direction--one that remains richly atmospheric in spite of its Post Rock slow build. In the first part of the fourth minute things empty our leaving Elizabeth's voice in a deep well of heavily-reverbed space, but then the storm surge wave of full power unleashes to carry out to the song's end. (9.25/10)

10. "Mute" (3:41) ominous low-end chords and a pulsing yet-syncopated tom-tom sequence and synth bass ground this one to the heavy metal core of the Earth. Even Elizabeth is compelled to sing in lower-than-usual register until all hell breaks loose at the three-minute mark. Awesome guitar from Rowan! And then Elizabeth's plaintive attempt to patch things up with her healing voice closes the song out. Wonderful! I love the force of this one! (9.25/10)

Total Time 47:13

Everyone paying attention to my writings and playlists knows that Elizabeth Heaton possesses one of my favorite voices of the 21st Century--made even better by the stupendous music that she and Rowan Burn and Michael Hamilton weave around her as well as by the tremendous effects they use on her vocal tracks. This album feels quite different from its predecessor, Evaporate, not quite as reverb-drenched atmospheric, with a more diverse choice of song styles and instrumental palettes. Cold Waves Divide Us may not be as consistently high as Evaporate, but the highs ("In the Morning ?", "I Am Wrong" and the title song) might very possibly be higher.

A-/five stars; another minor masterpiece of powerful, atmospheric, vocal Post Rock music from my favorite act in the Post Rock sub-genre. Highly recommended: essential for you post rock fans. And, if you've never had the extreme privilege of hearing the voice of Elizabeth Heaton, this would not be a bad place to start!

 Cold Waves Divide Us by MIDAS FALL album cover Studio Album, 2024
4.33 | 14 ratings

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Cold Waves Divide Us
Midas Fall Post Rock/Math rock

Review by KansasForEver2

4 stars It took almost six years for the Scottish female duo MIDAS FALL to follow up the excellent "Evaporate" reviewed at the time on profilprog. com by the no less excellent Gérald HAWEY! A duo which became a trio for the new album "Cold Waves Divide Us" with the inclusion of Michael HAMILTON, a multi-instrumentalist like the two girls, this is also the fifth disc of MIDAS FALL.

Summarizing and fitting MIDAS FALL somewhere is relatively complicated, their music is a mixture of alternative rock, progressive rock and post rock, I would personally classify them as climatic rock in that there are calm passages and others on the contrary very rock, very energetic, the title track is therefore very representative of what I have just written. It is sometimes said that the voice is an instrument in its own right, that is exactly what happens here with the vocals of Elizabeth HEATON. Female vocals are an element that must be taken into account in the originality of their music.

The opening track "In the Morning We'll Be Someone Else" begins gently on the piano before the guitars appear tense and nervous, it's moving to say the least, a little Siouxsie side very present on the elegiac vocals of Elizabeth HEATON (9/10)."I Am Wrong" starts with tribal drums, the rhythm here taking precedence over the other instruments, it's almost post rock metal, here again it effectively cleans up the eardrums (8/10).The third track "Salt" is calmer at the beginning (fortunately in a certain way), this time it's ambient post rock wave, a tense atmosphere once again (8/10 ) from ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN with MIDAS FALL sauce! "In This Avalanche" delicate piano at the opening, Elizabeth's diaphanous voice, superb strings, deep and cottony at the same time, the first soft track of the album (8/10). Change of register with "Point of Diminishing Return", a powerful electronic whirlwind, reminiscent of Thomas DOLBY or even Gary NUMAN and his metropolitan army, all in supercharged mode, my favorite piece on the entire disc ( 10/10).

"Monsters" which comes next, is the second calm track, magnificent high-pitched voice, lots of strings here again, high class melodic post rock which accelerates gradually, a cross between THE CURE and ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN (already mentioned), the cream of the British new wave of the eighties with the sound of 2024 (9/10). "Atrophy" is probably the most ionesque of the pieces, where the vocal phrasing of Elizabeth HEATON joins that of Joanna HOGG, pleasant but one of the least exciting on the record for my taste (7/10). The title track which follows, the longest of the album, close to six minutes, engages in the same channel, ethereal vocals in a dreamy mist which soar well beyond from 1:24, evanescent without pun intended, the trills of six strings, mainly from Rowan BURN, burst out, even splashing on a mid tempo sprinkled with strings (them again) and percussions of real inventiveness, the second pearl of the work (10/10).

The last two tracks "Little Wooden Boxes" first of all, a calm, sweet singing, before the rise in tension of the guitar from 1:11 with vocals that rise higher, percussive handclaps, a climatic mid tempo, a bit like the whole album, which gets energized at 3:40 to close with powerful guitars, a wall of sounds (8/10). Finally the last one "Mute" is excellent in the melodic post rock genre, too short in my opinion, the listener is never satisfied (!), the unbridled synthesizers and the demonic percussions do tons to delight our ears (8/10).

MIDAS FALL, a revelation for me, it's never too late to catch up, I will nevertheless listen carefully to their previous productions.

 Evaporate by MIDAS FALL album cover Studio Album, 2018
4.59 | 16 ratings

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Evaporate
Midas Fall Post Rock/Math rock

Review by tszirmay
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

5 stars Not really knowledgeable in a particular style means nothing when there so much blurred demarcation lines between prog genres anyway. Case in point, this remarkable album by this Scottish trio, which I landed upon by sheer good fortune and, as it can occasionally happen, bowling me away completely like a rolling strike right down the alley, pins flying, taking toll. The track list feels like an endlessly radiant suite, each piece blending with the previous challenge, opening eyes and ears with refined infusion.

Being a total pushover for dense atmospheres and a celestial voice, the very first seconds of "Bruise Pusher" nailed me to a proverbial cross of infinite salvation, as the tingling harp line intermingles with dense guitar swaths, walls of orchestrated string and a female vocalist by the name of Elizabeth Heaton that radiates both delicate power and shimmering beauty. The title track veers to a more electronic realm, with brooding, almost sinister bass tremors, the plaintive emanations from her sorrowful voice hitting hard and most of all, a constantly hopeful piano twinkle that serves to raise the spirit. The orchestrations again rule the waves, as the vaporizing water flood the ears. "Soveraine" segues perfectly into a heartfelt chant, each note expressive and meaningful in its fragility, guided along by the layered cello, as well as echoing guitar arpeggios, and a sense of eternity that just grabs at the senses. Imagine a proggier version of Portishead, Beth Gibbons was after all, one of the finest singers in music. This impression is most evident on the immensely seductive "Glue", featuring a magnificent performance all around, what with the electronic pace, the symmetric guitar rasps and that serpentine swirl of a siren sitting atop a rocky crag, beckoning the sailors to meet their fate. The denouement is just plain sublime. An exhausted piano serenely searches for a new avenue of expression, even more sedate than the previous commotion, "Sword to Shield" showcases a more orchestral chamber quartet feel that provides excruciating beauty to the arrangement, kneeling at the shrine of forceful emotional rapture and acceptance. Here again, the pained buildup of "Dust and Bone" emits an overt sense of vulnerability, hesitantly bold in a rather odd way, as exemplified by the percussive percolations of Ross Cochran-Brash's kit. This gem is followed ideally by a swooning voice that glimmers in the twilight, "Awake" suggesting that gentle rekindling of awareness that initiates every day, the consciousness of breath and senses. A pastoral deflection on the originally bright "In Sunny Landscapes", a peeling off layers of resistance, reflective in the mood variations and the basic simplicity of the arrangement, the heavenly voice firmly ingrained, the sweet orchestrations ruffling no feathers, and a perfect landing finale. As if wishing to define the notion of contrast, the cottony mist of "Lapsing" is like witnessing a solo piano dirge that slowly escalates out of its two-note torpor, a dripping cello expressing deep felt emotions and a bass furrow opting for even more undertow gloom, this tremendous piece is where the darker side resides. Somber, ghostly, and utter melancholy. Would you be at all surprised if the final track is the apotheosis of this album, fittingly encapsulating all the qualities that make this a sensational discovery? "Howling at the Clouds" is the stamp on your sonic passport, proving that you have entered the realm of the divine. After the childlike piano intro, the zither has its say, the reverberating drums echoing off the walls, trembling guitars that seem to shriek and bellow, setting the table for the vocalized mournful story, eventually stormed by the onsetting winds of despondence, scattering the clouds in all directions. A magnificent silence it all.

This was an overwhelming experience the first time I heard it and now, ten times in, it just keeps revealing itself to me as a prized masterpiece.

5 dehydrations

 Evaporate by MIDAS FALL album cover Studio Album, 2018
4.59 | 16 ratings

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Evaporate
Midas Fall Post Rock/Math rock

Review by bartymj

4 stars The first album I've listened to by this duo. Comes with the ethereal, spacious soundscapes that you'd expect of something filed under the Post Rock genre, but definitely more to it than that. Heavy use of reverb and distortion but to good effect alongside Heaton's chamber music style vocals. Tracks such as Evaporate and In Sunny Landscapes at times are much faster paced and "busy" than you'd expect from Post-Rock but always shrink back to minimalism just at the right moments.

Intrigued to hear the rest of Midas Fall's output but in isolation I'd imagine this album works both ways; as an entry point into the Post Rock style for those looking to explore it, and as a branching out of the norm for anyone who's tastes are firmly in the genre.

 Evaporate by MIDAS FALL album cover Studio Album, 2018
4.59 | 16 ratings

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Evaporate
Midas Fall Post Rock/Math rock

Review by BrufordFreak
Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

5 stars It's nice to hear a softer, more delicate, even acoustic side of both Elizabeth and Rowan, as on songs, "Sword To Shield," "Awake," and "In Sunny Landscapes" as well as all of the orchestral strings so clearly, integrally, even in isolation. The band has definitely taken to exploring their options outside of the Post Rock formats and sounds that they began with, yet power songs like "Bruise Pusher," "Glue," "Dust and Bone," and "Howling at the Clouds" are as devastating in their impact as songs from previous releases.

1. "Bruise Pusher" (3:57) edgy sound coming from the sharply distorted guitars makes this one feel raw despite clean drums and Elizabeth's harp keys and long, sustained vocalizations. Still, this is fresh, potent, and packs a wallop in the instrumental sections. (9/10)

2. "Evaporate" (5:38) spacious chamber music opening turning electro-trip-hoppy with the advent of Elizabeth's long held reverbed vowels. Delicate piano flourishes alternate with sections in which heavy bass parts and full strings fill the soundscape. Definitely a top three song for me and one of my favorite Midas Fall songs of all-time. (9.5/10)

3. "Soveraine" (5:45) Elizabeth singing between the spacious aural field of multiple cello tracks, delicately picked (later, tremoloed) guitar notes. The loud arrival of what-feels-like orchestra waves lasts a brief few seconds before backing away, but then another series of waves washes in via Rowan's tremoloed guitar. Another quiet section is marched along by what feels like a tympanic rhythm pattern as guitars and strings rise and fall around Elizabeth's steady singing. (8.75/10)

4. "Glue" (3:52) The most "normal" Midas Fall song on the album, with a more normal CURE-like full sound palette and multiple vocal tracks and approaches--the lead one being in Elizabeth's trademark plaintive voice. The song builds to a mini-crescendo in the third minute before breaking for a little DEPECHE MODE-like modular synth bridge, then bursting forth into a heavy instrumental section to finish. (9/10)

5. "Sword To Shield" (4:00) opens with a very spacious soundscape with only a tinkering piano and delicate vocals filling the room. Cello eventually and sporadically joins in before a slow Post Rock soundscape fills the aural pathways in the third minute. But then it all reverts to the spacious sparsity of the opening section in the fourth minute for Elizabeth's final vocal input. The end is full band but still not mega-crescendoing like typical Post Rock fare. (9/10)

6. "Dust and Bone" (4:01) one of Midas Fall's masterful renderings in which they seem to be expressing the fragility of the human mind. Elizabeth is masterful as is the music in perfect support of the theme and intended mood. A top three song for me. (9.5/10)

7. "Awake" (2:13) gently picked guitars back Elizabeth's distant-sounding voice--a voice that is almost spoken, almost absent-minded, almost whispered. Then she sings in a stronger voice a "You are" chorus finishing the song by completing her sentence with the title word. Cool! (4.75/5)

8. "In Sunny Landscapes" (5:27) Enya-like voice and sustained single notes (and, later, chords) from Rowan's guitars open this song. Bass, strummed electrified acoustic guitar and cello join in during the vocal break in the second minute, then Elizabeth rejoins and quickly shifts to a very high register for some emotional singing. By the fourth minute I can't help wondering if this is going to stay in the realm of modern pop songs or develop into something more but, instead--surprise--the sound de-escalates and thins for a delicate vocal section sung in Elizabeth's normal speaking range. The following musical patch is interlaced with wordless vocals among the keys, guitars, bass, and sparse drums before Elizabeth finishes the song with one last verse in her high voice. (9/10)

9. "Lapsing" (4:09) opens with two low single note drones before zither-like piano-keyboard and distant cymbols and guitar slowly join in. The pace is ultra slow, drawn out, with a soundscape reminiscent of early MONO pieces (You Are There and Hymn to the Immortal Wind). The second half of the song sees the addition of cello and deep keyboard bass line as Elizabeth's vocals get a little creepy. Bass drum kicks in as sonic field fills. It's ominous and unsettling. But good. (9/10)

10. "Howling At The Clouds" (4:23) opens like a Post Rock evolution of a CURE song before breaking down to an emptiness in which Elizabeth's voice enters and fills our souls. The return of the music en force is immaterial to Elizabeth's singular intent or delivery, yet the instrumental section that follows her cessation is quite powerful-- seeming to reinforce or reverberate the effect of her message. This is awesome! Post Rock at its best--at its most pure. (9.5/10)

Five stars; a minor masterpiece of progressive rock music! This is the least Post Rock conforming album that I've heard from Elizabeth and Rowan but it is my favorite!

 Wilderness by MIDAS FALL album cover Studio Album, 2013
4.67 | 11 ratings

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Wilderness
Midas Fall Post Rock/Math rock

Review by BrufordFreak
Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

5 stars I just found that this band that has been a favorite of mine for almost ten years is in the PA database! Quelle suprise! This is an awesome female-led Post Rock with singer/songwriter/guitarist Elizabeth Heaton and Rowan Burn on lead guitar. Ms. Heaton definitely has in her possession one of the most powerful, beautiful, emotionally expressive voices I've heard from the 21st Century. Her voice is so nimble and her singing style so unpredictable that I find myself often thinking that there must be a second voice--or second track--being sung. But it's not so! It's all her! Brilliant and refreshingly different song-writing throughout. Special shout-out to the drummer, Chris Holland: Mark Heron rules!

Five star songs: the haunting, heavy, heart-wrenching, triphoppy opener, 1. "The Unravelling King" (5:37) (10/10); the surprisingly layered, textured 4. "Our World Recedes" (5:21) (10/10); the power vocal and TORI AMOS sound of 9. "BPD" (4:27) (10/10); the sensitive, dreamy and careful finale, "Wilderness" (5:42) (10/10) 6. the short but packs a punch 6. "Fight First" (2:12) (9/10); 3. "Carnival Song" (5:04) (9/10); and, the deceptively delicate, Sarah MacLachlan-like; "The Moon and The Shine" (5:50) (9/10).

Five stars; a minor masterpiece of progressive rock music.

The best Math Rock/Post Rock album of 2013.

Thanks to dAmOxT7942 for the artist addition. and to Quinino for the last updates

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