AN AUTUMN FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN

An Autumn For Crippled Children’s previous album, ‘Everything’, was a remarkable piece; its expanses were vast, its shades rich, its textures warm and deep. And so ‘Only The Ocean Knows’ maintains the quality of dark and light combined to make for another emotional work that points towards the creative more so than the destructive. Black metal sensibilities underpin the aesthetic, the raging fire burning beneath the surface, and a wave of optimism runs through the epic structures and impressive arrangements. Where ‘Everything’ ran aground by some parts of the tracks on the album sounding too similar to others to distinguish themselves, ‘Only The Ocean Knows’ sees An Autumn For Crippled Children urging forward, basking in the shadowy reflections of the past and pushing onward into more ambitious compositions. Yet the band hasn’t really moved on. This sounds very much like the counterpart to ‘Everything’. A continuation, yes. But a progression? Not so much. With ‘Everything’, An Autumn For Crippled Children blended 70s prog rock splendour with wispy melodies, impassioned fiery guitar work with atmospheric and melancholic passages, and the coldly bleak and desperate with a yearning optimism. And so it is for this album. That’s not to say that it’s bad, far from it. Ethereal, elemental, and affecting, An Autumn For Crippled Children’s proclivity for complex and ambitious music that seamlessly blends the disparate to form something stirring is second to none. Whatever it is that the ocean knows, An Autumn For Crippled Children have again done a sterling job in plundering its depths for its musical treasures.

LABEL:

FORMAT:

ATMF

Album

ONLY THE OCEAN KNOWS

Review by Jason Guest

RUNNING TIME:

39:03

RELEASE DATE:

3rd Sept 2012

TRACK LISTING

1) Past Tense
2) Yes I Know...Love and Death Always
3) This Garden These Trees
4) In February
5) Only the Ocean Knows
6) The First Snow This Year
7) Uncureable
8) The Rising Tide

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

Netherlands

"Ethereal, elemental, and affecting, An Autumn For Crippled Children’s proclivity for complex and ambitious music that seamlessly blends the disparate to form something stirring is second to none."