The Morningside



2007 - The Wind, The Trees And The Shadows Of The Past

Reviews:

The Metal Crypt
(march 2008)
(3,75/5)

The Morningside present here some melancholic but not overly depressing Doom Metal. In fact, as far as Doom goes, this is pretty lightweight and quite accessible - call it "easy-listening music for metallers" if you will. This is slow to mid-paced music, big on atmosphere but still providing a healthy dose of guitar-based material, but nothing particularly "aggressive" - this would only sound aggressive to pop music fans, really. That doesn't mean it's bad, just that there's nothing particularly raw, rocking, or anything in-between on this album. This is very soothing music with tasteful use of keyboards and electric guitars that while distorted, sound rather tame (for a metal album, that is.) The overall atmosphere of the album tends toward the sad/melancholic style, but it does cast a somewhat upbeat shadow as well, making this Doom release more of a relaxing than a depressing affair. A couple of vocal styles are used here: Good clean vocals as well as a growl-ish style that borrows from Gothenburgh-style Melodic Death Metal. The Wind, the Trees and the Shadows of the Past may not be the most metal album in one's collection, but there are days when this is just the type of music one feels like listening to.


Reviewed by: Michel Renaud

Burning Misery
(april 2008)
(4/5)

Russian band The Morningside spring forth an exceptional effort with this debut. “The Wind the Trees andd the Shadows of the past” gives us a sorrowful, but ballad type of doom metal. Emotional feeling and passionate doom really stand out with this release. The Morningside are a great reminder of influence when it comes their style of playing. 5 songs totaling 40 minutes of music. I think that fans of Katatonia will love this album. Gothic style guitar, and again that emotional approach really stands out in the music. I can listen to this album in a great mood or in a terrible mood. The Morningside fit both emotions in a similar sense! I love the way they move around from one feeling to the other. The vocals are grim and black at times. It mixes in well with the music though. The Morningside have impressed me with their debut release, “The Wind The Trees and the Shadows of the Past”. Fans of Agalloch and Katatonia will definitely love this debut.


Reviewed by: Alex

The Metal Observer
(march 2008)
(8/10)

I’d seen mention of this band a few months before I got the promo. With comparisons to AGALLOCH, OPETH, and KATATONIA, Russia’s THE MORNINGSIDE was all set to fail to pass a bar set unfairly high. Now that I have heard “The Wind, The Trees, And The Shadows Of The Past” (come on, that’s not an album title, that’s practically the tracklist!), I have to say that I’m really not hearing the OPETH and KATATONIA comparisons, but there is something to this AGALLOCH comparison, but this is still a good and a bad thing.

Honestly, my opinion of this album the first time I listened to it was the rather glib “It’s like somebody took FALL OF THE LEAFE’s ‘Evanescent, Everfading’—the song, not the album—and made an entire album out of it.” For those of you who haven’t heard “Evanescent, Everfading”, substitute the second half of IRON MAIDEN’s “Afraid To Shoot Strangers.” Of course, that’s not fair. While the guitar-driven sound does have a highly melodic quality, like the two previous mentioned pieces, it’s not quite so dreamy. The three titular songs are all long, between 9:55 and 12:40 and are almost all guitar solo. You won’t find any shredding, but AGALLOCH-style cascades that seek to capture the mood and melody of the wind, the trees, and the shadows of the past.

But unlike their Pacific-Northwest counterparts, THE MORNINGSIDE really only has two speeds; their normal mid-to-slow, gentle inspection and their clean, guitar-only introspective parts. The opening of “The Shadows Of The Past” seeks to combine the two, but it almost gets to the point where you can predict the breaks. Vocals, by Igor’ Nikitin (also one of the guitarists) are usually of the one-dimensional Black variety with some unremarkable clean singing in “The Shadows Of The Past,” acceptable but by no means pushing the envelope. Though the songs are never really repetitive, at times they don’t stand out. The album very easily loses your attention if used as background music.

All in all, this is actually really promising. Like I said, it is a gentle album, so don’t expect anything extreme, but if you like melody in your nature worshipping then this album can be quite rewarding. At worst it’s mild white noise and at best it’s beautiful and profound. But it’s a debut album and so it’s natural that the band has room to grow and develop. I have to say that I am excited to see where they’ll go. Definitely a band to keep an eye on.

As of this writing, portions of all the songs can be streamed from the band’s website.


Reviewed by: Keith

Deaf Sparrow
(march 2008)

Russia’s The Morningside crafts melodic doom metal and by melodic we mean, this is some pretty fucking sad and melancholic stuff. Never void of beauty the music of The Morningside brings to the front the most sentimental aspects of classic bands like Opeth and Katatonia. You got your heavy and you got your more calmed airy pieces. One way or the other you know that both extremes are bound to collide, but they never do. For the most part the music is pretty calmed; the songs smoothly flow from quiet clear stringed balladry to open slow heavy riffs, usually accented by a bittersweet solo. Like most doomsters, The Morningside are quite keen to long musical passages that altogether ignore vocals. In this camp some of the songs from The Wind, the Trees and the Shadows of the Past recall some of Agalloch’s superior Ashes Against the Grain.

But the vocals are a totally different issue. They are the type of stuff that belongs to a Satanic black metal band; killer deep and demonic to the max, they counterbalance the depth of the music, and curiously enough, help the overall flow of the album experience giving it more of a peaks and valleys feel. There are clean vocals too; on the twelve minutes long “The Shadow of the Past” for example, they come as natural and unassuming as the nature pictures that adorn the insert. That too, gives the album a whole different feel.

Released by a subsidiary of Solitude Productions, Bad Mood Man (I had one hell of a time finding this one as I kept on typing Bad Moon Man) which specializes in ambient, minimalist and metal music, The Wind, the Trees and the Shadows of the Past is promising work. It got me curious about the band and I’d sincerely like to learn more about them. The problem is I searched and searched for them but was unable to find any official site or MySpace page. Aside a few reviews there is virtually no information about them. The insert itself doesn’t help as all the credits are in Russian.


Reviewed by: Editor

Chronicles Of Chaos
(march 2008)
(6/10)

The debut from this Russian based band consists of three lengthy songs sandwiched between an intro and outro. The titles of these three songs form the album title, immediately evoking comparisons to Katatonia's _Brave Murder Day_. This is no accident, as The Morningside construct similar songs based around melancholic rhythms, overlaid by melodious leads and interspersed with cleanly picked Agallochian arpeggios, and are even reminiscent of Burzum. (The opening lead on "The Trees" sounds suspiciously similar to "The Crying Orc".) The mood that is created is not overwhelming despair, but a delicate melancholy that suggests there is light at the end of the tunnel -- and that light is not brimstone reflected off the reaper's scythe.
The Morningside has chosen to sing in English, an inadvisable option for most Russian bands due to the resulting broken English. The Morningside are much better than many of their compatriots, but they do not grasp the subtle nuances that register on a subconscious level -- for example the opening couplet of "The Wind" ("Just fly through this night / Fly as high to blow up the leaves").

Despite the conceptual ambitions and pleasing melancholic tone, The Morningside are simply too derivative to provide a wholly satisfactory listen.


Reviewed by: Quientin Kalis

Deaf Sparrow
(march 2008)
(3,5/5)

Russia’s The Morningside crafts melodic doom metal and by melodic we mean, this is some pretty fucking sad and melancholic stuff. Never void of beauty the music of The Morningside brings to the front the most sentimental aspects of classic bands like Opeth and Katatonia. You got your heavy and you got your more calmed airy pieces. One way or the other you know that both extremes are bound to collide, but they never do. For the most part the music is pretty calmed; the songs smoothly flow from quiet clear stringed balladry to open slow heavy riffs, usually accented by a bittersweet solo. Like most doomsters, The Morningside are quite keen to long musical passages that altogether ignore vocals. In this camp some of the songs from The Wind, the Trees and the Shadows of the Past recall some of Agalloch’s superior Ashes Against the Grain.

But the vocals are a totally different issue. They are the type of stuff that belongs to a Satanic black metal band; killer deep and demonic to the max, they counterbalance the depth of the music, and curiously enough, help the overall flow of the album experience giving it more of a peaks and valleys feel. There are clean vocals too; on the twelve minutes long “The Shadow of the Past” for example, they come as natural and unassuming as the nature pictures that adorn the insert. That too, gives the album a whole different feel.

Released by a subsidiary of Solitude Productions, Bad Mood Man (I had one hell of a time finding this one as I kept on typing Bad Moon Man) which specializes in ambient, minimalist and metal music, The Wind, the Trees and the Shadows of the Past is promising work. It got me curious about the band and I’d sincerely like to learn more about them. The problem is I searched and searched for them but was unable to find any official site or MySpace page. Aside a few reviews there is virtually no information about them. The insert itself doesn’t help as all the credits are in Russian.


Reviewed by: editor@deafsparrow.com

Harm.us
(february 2008)

"The Wind, the Trees and the Shadows of the Past" is the 2007 debut from Russian outfit, The Morningside. In my opinion, this is one of the best albums i've ever listened from a Russian metal band. Very close to the style i like and with really good songs

Atmospheric doom metal is the genre they are into and more specific with many influences from the sound of Agalloch and especially Katatonia. They blend crushing riffs with acoustic melodies in an excellent way and the result is very good. I think the better way to describe The Morningside's music to you is the following: imagine Agalloch cover Katatonia's "Brave Murder Day" in their own style. That's it.

Fans of the style should check this album out. I'm sure you'll have a pleasant listening. If The Morningside manage to acquire a more personal sound in their next albums then we will have one more great band in this sound


Reviewed by: Bleeding

Prog Archives
(september 2007)
(5/5)

OK, few words about THE MORNINGSIDE. First of all their music will appeal to those who like Doom-Metal and Post-Metal (Sludge/ Stoner/Post-Core etc), so fans of PELICAN, GIANT SQUID, GRAYCEON, NEUROSIS, ISIS, CULT OF LUNA, even OPETH and AGALLOCH must check this one for sure. Only 5 tracks, with short instrumental intro and outro and 3 epics entitled "The Wind" (probably the best one, most memorable), "The Trees" and "The Shadows of the Past" (contains awesome atmospheric mid- part). Musically THE MORNINGSIDE is close to above-mentioned bands, but they're pretty unique, combining such elements as both extreme harsh and wonderful clear vocals (neither screaming a-la ISIS nor growling a-la OPETH), solo guitar duos (EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY, THE CURE and MY DYING BRIDE all come to mind!) and impressive thrythm-section. Besides the quailty of the record is top-notch despite the home recording (!!!). BadMoodMan is a department of Solitude Prod., Russian Doom-Metal label, but do not let this fact confuse you: these guys are worthy of attention for sure, incorporating various influences and styles into their music, making it both eclectic enough and very enjoyable. I simply have nothing to be unsatisfied, except maybe for record's length...but from the other hand 40 minutes of pure bliss won't make you get bored with them. Highly recommended and available through BadMadMoon for a pretty suitable price. Enjoy!!!

Reviewed by: Prog Jester