ALBUM REVIEW: The Curse of Autumn – Witherfall

Even when you’re sat comfortably in a realm of music like metal that’s brimming with extremities and superlatives, genuine surprises are still out there. In the curious case of WITHERFALL, one of the LA scene’s finest rising names, they bring two. Not only is it surprising that they get away with carrying the deadweight mouthful of dark melodic progressive heavy metal on their shoulders but that it somehow translates into something that foregoes the confines of mere audio and breaches into the world of theatre. The Curse of Autumn sticks to the old adage of a band’s third record being a realisation of their sound and completes a hat trick of records that, in just four years, have seen the band catapult into relevancy. While it may share DNA with 2017 debut Nocturnes and Requiems and 2018’s subsequent A Prelude to Sorrow (connected by the striking artwork of Kristian Wahlin), the band’s third outing is truly a beast of its own regard. 

The Curse of Autumn is the result of a band pushing beyond their predetermined limits, not only breaking boundaries but also exhibiting a great deal of refinement to hone in on what makes WITHERFALL such an inviting ensemble. What that is, at its core, is scale. WITHERFALL LP’s, whether it be a re-telling of a famous Stephen King novel or a reactionary memoriam to the band’s original drummer, have felt and sounded huge; operatic if you will. This boils down to the band having always been in safe hands, ones well fit for the unrestrained medley of heavy metal’s thespian lyricism and progressive metal’s undiluted complexity. 

Vocalist Joseph Michael, simply put, is one of the best in the game. His range is certainly undeniable – pushing the band into black metal flurries on command amongst the regular histrionics of heavy metal – but it’s his performances that take The Curse of Autumn beyond good and into greatness. For an album soaked in copious levels of rage and anxiety, Michael’s expressive pipes – particularly his Jack Skellington-esque cackles in Another Face – transform these mere songs into grand rock opera monologues worthy of centre-stage attention. 

Much like the well-stocked theatre they appear to operate in, the band is proficient at making things considered small and simplistic appear colossal through swathes of vocal harmonies – of varying styles, no less – guitar, bass, acoustics and keyboards through which their sound is given gigantic proportions. Axeman Jake Dreyer has wisely cut the less-than-positive links to his former ICED EARTH colleagues and joins bassist Anthony Crawford of CHON fame in providing The Curse of Autumn’s track list with its multitude of styles. A jack of all trades but master of many, the pair match the lyrical fixation of rage and hatred with thrash-speed chugs, piercing tremolos whilst saving the plucks of Spanish acoustic for the album’s less acerbic moments. Be wary of whiplash, however, as the band will often cover that much ground in the space of a few minutes as the tracks unfold. With that said, this stylistic smorgasbord never feels clumsy or disjointed, it is only ever a natural progression that seems to be second nature to WITHERFALL’s diverse palette. 

The album’s journey from A-B does seem set for the stage with an initial run of out-and-out bangers (as simplistic as their composition will allow, mind you) with The Last Scar, As I Lie Awake and Another Face being a suitable welcome to the album’s penchant for vitriol and mania. Tempest picks up as the most volatile of the bunch, a constantly morphing eight-minute reflection on anxiety where Michael really leans into his role as a vocalist and narrator. The title track followed by The Unyielding Grip Of Each Passing Day function almost as an intermission, both small numbers that prep the arena nicely for the final act. Theatrical metaphors aside, they are good tracks but considering how compact they both are, and the way in which the title track awkwardly builds to its successor with the violent chugs before cutting short only for them to begin again on the other side is simply bizarre and isn’t reflective of the album’s otherwise remarkable production package. 

Saving the record’s best moments till last, The Curse of Autumn’s final two tracks confirm the album’s high-tier status. The River a three-minute morsel that erupts into one of the album’s most emotionally evocative moments, a tall order for an album filled with so many genuine performances, that flows nicely into …And They All Blew Away, the band’s fifteen-minute epilogue which coalesces the previous nine tracks of material for one last hurrah. There arguably isn’t enough emphasis anymore on the curtain closing being such a momentous occasion; WITHERFALL hasn’t forgotten. 

WITHERFALL currently sit precariously between vague obscurity and household name. Whether the mysterious ways of the music industry will allow them to fulfil the latter remains unknown but by god if any album deserves to do just that The Curse Of Autumn fits the bill to a tee. A band that could become known as metal’s best crowd-pleasers, there is quite possibly something here for metalhead’s of all persuasions and is executed with the precision and evocation that only true dedication and passion can amass. Four years and three albums into their career and WITHERFALL emerge on top form, doubling-down on their array of elaborate theatrics; hungry for the future to come.  

Rating: 9/10

The Curse of Autumn is set for release March 1st via Century Media Records. 

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