Grey Skies Fallen
Two Way Mirror
7.3
With the critically acclaimed Dismantling Devotion, Daylight Dies will hopefully open the door to more darkly elegant metal from the US. And one such band is Grey Skies Fallen, a band that through two previous albums, changed styles but still received some underground praise, and that change and praise continues with this third album.
Starting out as a My Dying Bride-ish doom band with debut The Fate of Angels, then branching out to more progressive, melodic death metal with Tomorrow’s In Doubt, Grey Skies Fallen have taken 4 years off to morph into their current sound; a dark, progressive form of bleak rock (think new Anathema) that the Europeans are far more known for. There are some gruff growls, but on the whole the clean vocals of Rick Habeeb are serviceably emotional and sullen, if hardly on Garm levels.
Two Way Mirror consists of material written while the band was on hiatus and reflects the mood of a broken up band, tumultuous times and eventual reformation; it’s at times sad (“Blue”, “Drift”), at times angry (“This Sinking Feeling”), reflective (“Two Way Mirror”, “Forget the Past”), reconciliation (“The Few”) and ultimately redeeming (“Carry On”) virtually mirroring the band's career.
Regardless of mood, the music is depressively elegant for the most part as the tones waft delicately with the occasional ‘extreme’ peak by way of some growls and some more aggressive guitars (“Blue”, “Two Way Mirror”, “This Sinking Feeling”, "The Opposite of Up"), but for the most part Habeeb and co. stick with subtle, ebbing, understated textures and introspective prose that’s relaxed and somber with a slight prog tone (tinkering synths, keys, etc). Either way it's all top notch stuff, even if hindered by the slightly flat production, that’s understandable considering this is a virtually self produced, mastered and released affair (Xanthros Music is Grey Skies Fallen).
Any fans of emotional, evocative music should seek this out, there’s just too much skill, commitment and dedication in this band to let them fall by the wayside.
