THE LIVING FIELDS

This album will put many in a quandary. It’s clear that ‘Running Out of Daylight’ is an excellent album, but it doesn’t fit in. Anywhere. The Living Fields have created a unique sound that is all their own, a concoction of folk, pagan, and Viking sounds, prog rock, and metal that magnificently transcends any and every genre. The vocals are remarkably diverse in range and style, with everything from multi-layered folk harmonies to Halford-esque metal wails to cookie-munching death grunts, each used at just the right moment to just the right effect. The strings are elaborate and extravagant. The metal riffs such as in ‘From Miseries to Blood’ are mighty and add a sufficiently doomy weight to the album. And the doom groove of ‘Glacial Movements’ provides an unexpected head-banging moment. And the 17-minute title track is an epic piece that, through the final days of Galileo Galilei and his crisis of faith, explores the ultimate sin of blind faith in a vast array of disparate styles. No mean feat given its duration. At once epic, progressive and doom-laden, it’s very difficult to find many flaws. Sombre and striking, three years in the making, this is an accomplished work but there’s something missing that’s difficult to pinpoint. Sometimes fluid, at others a little jagged, this is a band that has strived to create something new, something different, and have, largely, succeeded. It’s not that they don’t fit in to any identifiable genre because there are enough bands out there that too easily fall foul of the trappings of their chosen genre/s. That The Living Fields transcend genres is refreshing and an accolade that they should brandish with pride. This is an album of much complexity that is formidable in its execution. It’s got good music and intelligent themes. Because of all of these elements, this is a curio that is perplexingly enticing. With every listen, this album becomes increasingly and unfathomably enthralling. An hour well spent. Check it out.

LABEL:

FORMAT:

Candlelight Records

Album

RUNNING OUT OF DAYLIGHT

Review by Jason Guest

RUNNING TIME:

60:13

RELEASE DATE:

18th July 2011

TRACK LISTING

1) Remnant
2) Perseverance
3) From Miseries to Bloodsoaked Fields
4) When the Walls Go Up
5) Bitterness
6) Glacial Movements
7) Intermissione
8) Running Out of Daylight

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

USA

"With every listen, this album becomes increasingly and unfathomably enthralling."