Vesperian Sorrow - Stormwinds of Ages
I’m a big fan of atmospheric/symphonic music so when I hear that a band plays in that style, I immediately take notice. Though they hail from Austin, Texas, Vesperian Sorrow could easily come from Europe. Their sound is very much in the same style as England’s Gothic Black Metal institution, Cradle of Filth, and Norway’s Symphonic Black Metal machine, Dimmu Borgir. They even have obnoxious press info. I don’t know if that is an actual requirement for playing Symphonic Black Metal, but most bands who do seem to have a highly inflated attitude about it. Vesperian Sorrow is definitely a band that is good at what it does. Stormwind of Ages is easily as good as anything else currently out there in the scene when it comes down to the music. Where Vesperian Sorrow gets caught is in the production department, particularly with the drum sound. The drums sound horrible. The bass drum sounds like a light switch and the snare sounds like someone pounding on a plastic bucket. This wouldn’t be too much of a problem if the drummer wasn’t blasting away on them like his life depended on it. When things get fast and furious in the drumming department, the snare and bass drums bury the guitars and intrudes on the keyboards. With Symphonic Black Metal, it is pretty much guaranteed that the keyboards are going to dominate the sound. When the drumming intrudes even into that area, it makes you question the competence of the studio engineer. It doesn’t totally ruin the album, but I found it annoying enough to deduct points. I have a pet peeve about bands that play epic, atmospheric/symphonic Black Metal but have a drummer that feels that it’s necessary to blast away like he was playing in a Grindcore band. In my opinion, this could have been a great album but for the drumming and the drum sound. If the drums had been further in the background and had a tone that wasn’t so bad, this would have rated higher in my estimation. This is still a good album, though. The music is up there with the best. If these guys can sort out their drum tone and get their drummer to slow down a little, their next album will be great.
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