The Morningside - Moving Crosscurrent Of Time (CD) Digibook

Review
Pitchline Zine
6/10
09.09.2011

Hace poco os presentábamos al grupo ruso de Doom Metal The Morningside con su disco debut ‘The Wind, the Trees and the Shadows of the Past’, editado en 2007. Ahora os traemos su segundo trabajo (con algo de retraso también, ya que se editó en 2009) titulado ‘Moving Crosscurrent of Time’.

Su evolución respecto al anterior ha sido mínima. La estructura del disco es la misma: una introducción instrumental, seguida de una descarga de desolación y dolor, y un cierre a cargo de una outro también instrumental.

La época inicial de Katatonia sigue estando vigente en su trabajo y canciones como “Autumn People” suenan completamente al ‘Brave Murder Day’ de los suecos. Como se comentó en la reseña del debut, impacta bastante el contraste entre la parte instrumental, influenciada por los antes citados Katatonia y algo de Agalloch, con las voces guturales propias del Black Metal, como se puede escuchar en “Insomnia” y “Fourteen”.

El disco es bastante similar entre sí y no ofrece nada nuevo. Los pocos cambios rítmicos apenas destacan y hacen el disco bastante monótono, sonando completamente a los grupos citados anteriormente. Lo único a destacar es la penúltima canción, llamada “The Outcome (Admit One)” que se mueve por unos terrenos mucho más amenos al oído, con ese Doom con tintes góticos que recuerdan a los Rapture finlandeses, y un final que no tiene nada que ver con lo que han ofrecido hasta ahora a cargo de unas melodías progresivas hechas con teclados en formato midi.

Este “Moving Crosscurrent of Time” no ofrece nada que no hayamos escuchado y reescuchado a estas alturas, con unas clarísimas influencias a los inicios de Katatonia y a Agalloch y que gustará a los seguidores del género. Veremos si su nuevo disco, editado en 2011 (tranquilos, ¡en breve será reseñado! ) sigue el mismo patrón que han utilizado hasta ahora o se centrarán en esas nuevas influencias que nos han mostrado al final del disco. En breve saldremos de dudas.

Author: Xènia Von Ereticy

Review
Vibrations of Doom #50
9.8/10

When I first heard their debut "The Wind, The Trees And The Shadows Of The
Past," I thought this Russian doom styled band was interesting, but nothing
prepared me for just how much this CD would totally annihilate their previous
effort! First off, right from the get go you'll notice that much of the guitar
work is oh-so catchy and utilizing some of the highest ended guitar notes that
soar with emotion. Right off the bat I'll say that the opening "intro" (Yea,
it's called an intro; their first CD had one too, but the "Outro" is worth
mentioning. We'll do that later) had to be skipped. It starts out cool enough,
with harsh bird and rough wind sounds, and a rather ambient landscape of
synths, but the synths soon get rather annoying before the track ends. Not a
huge deal, for once 'Fourteen' kicks in as one of the best tracks on the album,
you'll be thrilled at the ride. Oftentimes the guitar work keeps you wondering
if this is REALLY a doom metal oriented band, as the slower passages oftentimes
utilize a somewhat thrash set of guitar riffs (or choppy style riffs, whatever)
to accentuate the higher ended leads. And EVERY song here is chock full of
great solo instrumentation. You'll often hear the vocals disappear for about
two thirds to half of the song, only to close it out by the track's end. And
the brilliant guitar work is all over the place. 'Autumn People' carries things
on, with nice opening lead riffs. 'Insomnia' starts the track off with sick
blackened vocals, and they're quite intense. These lead guitar riffs are
starting to sound familiar; maybe it's because they're played around the same
fret pattern or because they're so high up. This track stops midway to bring
out a semi acoustic set of instrumentation. There's some interesting double
bass drumming to end the track, once again making you wonder if this really is
doom metal! The title trackhas a few odd leads around the 3:15 mark, and again
near the end of the song, but I think it's just two notes that struck me as
odd. There's a really interesting lead solo here that blazes away for a few,
though each note is crafted in a rising crescendo that really carries the
emotion of the song to new heights. The last actual "song" is 'The Outcome,'
and this is one of the most interesting and diverse cuts, mainly because around
the 4 minute mark there's some really vicious and dark thrash riffing going on!
You totally don't expect to hear THAT by this point. And the ending of the
track SHOULD be around the 7:15 mark, except there's this amazingly magical set
of synth ambience going on along with the repeating of the lead guitar parts,
and I though, what a fabulous way to end the CD! It's trippy, almost
psychedelic and totally amazing. However, the last track is the "outro," and it
resembles more a REAL song, since it has actual SUNG vocals (yes, and this is
the ONLY place on the CD you'll find clean sung vocals) and guitar, drums, etc.
It starts out with acoustical guitar work that you SWEAR you've heard before (I
think it's an acoustical version of riffs from a previous song). True to form,
even though it's a 7 minute track, the vocals don't appear until about 2:35.
This CD quite simply blew me away, with me getting hooked on 'Fourteen' and the
other tracks soon getting repeat nods. VERY little complaining to do here
folks, and I must say that you'll be questioning whether this disc is a TRUE
representation of a great mixture of black and doom metal. One of the best doom
styled bands to come from Russia, I daresay we are going to be blown away even
more at their next offering...

Review
HardSounds.it
74/100
12.02.2010

Paradise Lost e Katatonia i suoi precettori, anche se "Moving Crosscurrent Of Time" sa essere in parte personale. Ancora death/doom, quindi, per i The Morningside, band russa alle prese con il suo secondo album. Un disco che guarda si con intensità ai padri del genere, ma che prova ad andare oltre tramite una maggiore insistenza melodica, assoli frequenti e lunghi, ed uno screaming che definire tipicamente black non è certo una licenza poetica. Composizioni più fluide e qualche armonizzazione in più rendono i brani assimilabili fin dal primo impatto, ed è proprio il lavoro in fase solista della sei corde a renderle tali, graffiante e preciso come quanto ispirato. Ci sono tutti i motivi per credere che i The Morningside abbiamo superato la prova della maturità, anche se una maggiore concretezza non dispiacerebbe: quando si va di ambient e di accenni new wave come nell'intro e nella coda finale la banalità si manifesta in tutta la sua baldanzosa inefficacia. Un buon disco alla fine, appetibile per chi apprezza nello specifico lo stile, meno per chi lo subisce di riflesso. Di sicuro ci sono tutte le premesse per credere che il prossimo giro possa essere quello della loro definitiva consacrazione.

Pesanti, oscuri, ma con guanti di velluto

Author: Andrea "Emo" Punzo

Review
Legacy Magazine #69
9/10

Seit 2006 aktiv, haben THE MORNINGSIDE bereits
ein Album veröffentlicht und gingen dann wieder auf
Label-Suche. Bei BadMoodMan erscheint nun „Moving
Crosscurrent Of Time“, das zweite Full-Length der vier
Moskauer. Interessant ist das Album nicht aufgrund seiner
Stilmittel, die man anderswo ausgefeilter findet, besonders
die ziemlich laut abgemischten, heiser gekrächzten bis
geknurrten Vocals nerven auf Dauer und machen die
melancholische Grundstimmung der omnipräsenten
Lead-Gitarre kaputt, die sich im zweiten Stück ‚14’ oder
in ‚Insomnia’ an vierter Stelle in Höhen schwingt, die
man sonst nur aus dem Power Metal kennt. „Moving
Crosscurrent Of Time“ bezieht seine Melancholie aus dem
Herbst, doch nicht, weil der Herbst Herbst ist, sondern weil
das Bewusstsein einer Existenz in Zyklen einfach depressiv
machen muss. Da werden neblige Novembertage und
das baldige Ende des Lebens in Beziehung gesetzt mit
Kindheitserinnerungen, der Honig auf dem Roggenbrot und
der Osterkuchen besungen. THE MORNINGSIDE erkennen:
Das Leben ist eine Bürde, und „Moving Crosscurrent Of
Time“ ist das Verlangen danach, die Zyklizität des Lebens
außer Kraft zu setzen – wie auch immer. Das Cover des
limitierten Digipacks zeigt die tief stehende Herbstsonne,
im Vordergrund einen bereits kahlen Baum und Wind,
dessen Staubpartikel gegen die Sonne sichtbar werden. Es
geht zu Ende. Bleibt die Frage: Was hören wir im nächsten
Frühjahr?

Author: JIP

Review
Darkcity 54\2010
4/5
Январь\Февраль 2010

Да, чёрт побери, уже и такие альбомы записывают российские группы! Вторая работа The Morningside однозначно продолжила линию дебютника, направленную на меланхоличный метап, только в этот раз вместо формулы 'поздний Opeth + Katatonia' я бы использовал 'Agallocli + Katatonia', Нельзя не отметить и некоторое усложнение аранжировок, что, впрочем, ни в коей мере не усложнило общее восприятие музыки The Momingside. Ну а поддержанию правильной атмосферы на время прослушивания альбома вновь поможет стильное оформление буклета; при этом коллекционерам я настоятельно рекомендую обратить внимание на лимитированное издание диска в формате дигибук.

Author: Ан.К.