ALBUM REVIEW: All Fell Silent, Everything Went Quiet – An Autumn For Crippled Children

True despair is a difficult thing to portray in music. Historically a lot of black metal has met the criteria but in recent years, a new breed has been hankering for popularity. Owed partly to the success of albums such as DEAFHEAVEN‘s Sunbather et al, a new term has been coined. Blackgaze. Born to an amalgamation of black metal and a noisier, traditional shoegaze style, the genre blends the best of excessively loud rock with the bleakest of tones in a successful attempt to extract pints of real angst. Despite their slightly questionable choice of band name, AN AUTUMN FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN have been a driving force in blackgaze for some time now, and their latest effort All Fell Silent, Everything Went Quiet is another hauntingly beautiful blend of sinister, cathartic trauma. The trick is combining beauty with melancholy, a concoction that when stirred does nothing less than create a feeling of emotional turmoil and an atmosphere almost too dense to hack through. This latest LP hits that nail squarely on the head, and goes some way towards describing the full range of emotions that a person might encounter, especially through the difficult times we are all currently experiencing.

All Fell Silent, Everything Went Quiet opens with I Became You, which in its early stages could be a post rock song before a hostile slab of guitar sends a shockwave through the track. Overwhelming noise becomes the focal point, challenging our senses and testing our ability to engage with such a devastating auditory assault. However upon picking the track apart, the construct is delicate and fine-spun. Much like the second effort Water’s Edge, the rambunctious guitar is joined by a layer of electronica that sits just above the mix and helps to build that sense of emotive atmosphere.

There is almost an otherworldly feeling, as songs like Paths continue to drive forwards at full pelt in a blistering frenzy and harrowing vocals rip through the mix as they do for most of the album. Although indecipherable for the most part, their meaning is largely made apparent by their angst which makes it very hard to ignore their impact. As is the case with a lot of ‘gaze’ releases, one of the drawbacks is the potential for detail to be lost. At times, tracks like None More Pale and The Failing Senses can feel a little bit like a sonic onslaught and there are moments where it would be nice for some of the band’s technicality to be more prominent. For the most part though, AN AUTUMN FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN balance the scales fairly well, even though at times they may tip more towards emotion than detail. The album closes with Craving Silence and Distance, leaving us feeling like we’ve really been put through the wringer.

If one thing is certain, All Fell Silent, Everything Went Quiet is not an easy listen, but it’s ability to stir the deepest of inexplicable sentiment might just be the perfect depiction of contemporary life. Likely more suited to black metal fans willing to think more progressively, it is an album destined to leave us pondering it’s cavernous depth, and feeling a little more human than we did before.

Rating: 7/10

All Fell Silent, Everything Went Quiet is out now via Prosthetic Records. 

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