Wine From Tears - Glad To Be Dead (CD)

Review
Mroczna Strefa
7/10

Lojalnie przestrzegam, że w sytuacji potencjalnego spotkania z WINE FROM TEARS należy przygotować się na to, że nic nowego w doom/death metalu czasem się nie pojawia. Ale z drugiej strony pewne sprawdzone standardy i formuły dają się przesłuchać bez grymasu na twarzy, bo chociaż na drugim albumie Rosjan można przewidzieć pewne sytuacje, to są one na poziomie trzech zespołów, które mówią coś konkretnemu fanowi takiego grania, czyli SATURNUS, SWALLOW THE SUN czy DRACONIAN, a są one wręcz fundamentami pewnego podejścia do tej stylistyki. Bez drastycznych przemian w stronę melodyczną czy grobową można się na „Glad To Be Dead” przenieść do świata mocarnego i drapieżnego grania z bardzo wciągającymi partiami drugiej gitary i brajdowskimi zagrywkami. Nie będę tutaj orędownikiem tego, by trzymać się niczym cycka mamy pewnych rzeczy, bo po latach nikt nie wspomni takiego wykonawcy, a i krótko po wydaniu nawet najlepiej brzmiącej płyty wielu ludzi nie skusi się na taką propozycję, ale całe szczęście WINE FROM TEARS polega na tym, że te wszystkie elementy połączyli w logiczną i dość różnorodną całość, w której zakres wchodzą i odchodzące od typowych growli wokale, i akustyczno-progresywne fragmenty budowane przez gitary, a i klawiszowe tła budzą się czasami, by zwrócić na siebie uwagę jakimś bardziej parasymfonicznym czy pianistycznym motywem. Zaskoczyli też dość skocznym i przebojowym kawałkiem umieszczonym na samym końcu - wzbogaconym żeńskim wokalem „Silence No More”. Jedyny banał ze strony WINE FROM TEARS (ale nie dotyczy to tylko ich) polega na tym, że jeśli ktoś jest obyty z tym, co działo się w czasie, gdy rządził i dzielił MY DYING BRIDE (okres ten, mimo wszystko, trwa do dziś) i obserwowało co było później, ten zwróci uwagę, że utwory buduje się na takiej, a nie innej zasadzie i choć w melodycznym doom/death metalu nie ma typowego podziału na zwrotki i refreny, to takie przekonanie jest nieco błędne i tylko niektórym wizjonerom tej stylistyki oraz wspomnianym Brajdom udało się uciec w nieco inną technikę budowania dramaturgii, która polega na wysuwaniu na front emocji, a nie czysto matematycznemu obliczaniu gdzie wtrynić gitarową solówkę, a gdzie umieścić spokojniejszy moment. Wszystkim kapelom z tego kręgu, w tym WINE FROM TEARS, zalecam przy komponowaniu uciekanie od osłuchiwania się w setki podobnych albumów, a raczej myślenie kategoriami kompletnie odmiennymi, niekoniecznie metalowymi, bo wówczas efekt może być bardziej piorunujący i choć z początku niektórych odrzucający, to wielu innych to doceni. Jak to się mówi - „kropla drąży skałę”, a mieliśmy już w przeszłości wiele takich przykładów, że można to uczynić. Wspominam o tym przy okazji najnowszego albumu ABSTRACT SPIRIT i chociaż to trochę inna stylistyka, to tamci potrafili wyciągnąć pewne wnioski i z płyty na płytę wynoszą się coraz bardziej do świata, do którego innym coraz trudniej dosięgnąć.

Author: Diovis

Review
Forgotten Path
7.5/10

The band from Samara city Wine from Tears seems to really mean business by thrusting their way to being one of the best Melodic Death/Doom bands from their country. The second work of them “Glad to be Dead” just proves that the fortune and charm of their debut album called “Through the Eyes of a Mad” wasn’t just a coincidence. Of course, if we compared both works, we would see that the first one wasn’t so deeply melodic and sweetish. The new album is oriented to the melody first and these Russians with their stylistics could be even compared to Saturnus.
In general, “Glad to be Dead” isn’t an extraordinary record, because it repeats the standard features of Death and Gothic/Doom, but the band still does something great and it is a pleasure to listen to. It is jolly that male vocals both clear and the growl dominate and if you would ask, female vocals could even be deleted in some places, because its presence induces negative associations with the worst stereotypes of Gothic Metal... The music itself is quite melancholic, but in some places I would like to hear some slower tones. As I have already mentioned, some sweetness is felt here, but it is not too much for such a genre. All in all, it is well arranged, well sounding and a compulsive record of Death/Doom.

Author: Odium

Review
Funeral Wedding
4/5

Aproveitando que a noite esta chuvosa, hoje vou abordar um som “diferente” do que estou acostumado a resenhar para o Funeral Wedding, hoje abordando um som mais death/doom.

Wine From Tears lançou seu segundo full no ano passado e agora vêm com trabalho “Glad To Be Dead”.

O trabalho inicia com a intro “For Those Who Died Asleep”, um instrumental bastante obscuro, não dá para imaginar um início melhor que esse.

“Allergic Sun” começa, para quem acompanha o trabalho da banda desde do seu primeiro trabalho, vai logo de cara conhecer seus riffs comuns, os vocais foram muito bem trabalhados, diferente das bandas normais de death/doom, o Wine From Tears mescla seus guturais com vocais limpos, logo de início já é feito de uma forma bem ótima.

Logo em seguida dá início a faixa “What Are You Waiting For?” a faixa começa mais arrastada que sua antecessora, com uma melodia lenta, os riffs são trabalhados, nesta faixa a banda explora algo perto do “gothic”/doom, com uma pegada bem melódica, viajante e buscando realmente o que o título diz, casa bem com o álbum.

“In Memory Of The Truth” inicia com uma intro de piano, logo em seguida começa os riffs, ai você encontra semelhanças com algumas bandas como Saturnus e até o Draconian, uma bateria trabalhada, bem característica e ao fundo você acompanha os teclados, fazendo uma atmosfera melancólica. No meio da faixa há uma mudada, fica focada em som não “pesado”, aos poucos os riffs vão se transformando e vocal volta fazendo a faixa percorrer uma longa atmosfera.

Mantendo o ritmo do álbum, temos a “Let Me In”, com vocal limpo fazendo algumas passagens mais longas, mais uma vez no meio da faixa, a banda faz uma certa “parada” no peso, para ficar puramente lento e melódico, bem interessante essas passagens, algumas bandas as vezes deixam de arriscar nesse ponto, para focar no “peso”, o Wine consegue trabalhar isso muito bem, sem perder seu foco principal.

A sexta faixa do álbum “Like A Fallen Leaf”, começa exatamente com um dos trunfos da banda, essa mescla de vocais limpos com guturais, a banda aposta bastante nessa forma, e casa muito bem, os riffs conseguem fazer o ouvinte ir além do local em que esta, essa faixa é uma das mais belas que a banda já produziu, um peso melódico único.

“The Light At The End Of The World” penúltima faixa do álbum, e mais longa. Com seus 10 minutos, a faixa traz um peso para o álbum, com um foco mais “rápido” que todas as outras, banda soa como um death/doom mais cru em alguns momentos, mas voltando sempre ao seu lado melódico. O teclado sempre presente ao fundo, a bateria mais rápida, a faixa reflete todo um trabalho e faz um elo com o primeiro disco da banda.

Chegamos ao fim do álbum com a faixa “Silence No More”, nela vemos presente o vocal feminino, diferente do primeiro álbum, eles abandonaram esse tipo de vocal, apenas usando nessa faixa. A música está mais veloz, um death/doom que flerta mais uma vez com o doom/gothic, rolando até uma passagem mais “eletrônica”.

Este trabalho do Wine From Tears é praticamente a continuação do seu primeiro e ótimo álbum, um som focado no death/doom mais que flerta as vezes com o “gothic” e até mesmo com certas melodias do funeral doom, para quem amou o primeiro CD, vai adorar esse segundo trabalho.

Review
Chronicles of Chaos
1.5/10
02.03.2014

No one's glad to be dead, and if you're dead -- you are just that: dead! This absurdity / paradox of an album title makes as much sense as offering yet another Russian gothic / romantic saccharin-sweet "doom/death" metal album to the masses, the likes of which are dime-a-dozen, and which, by no means, serves as either the bearer of a new message, or the bearer of any message whatsoever.
Friendly and life-affirming music (contrary to the album's title), _Glad to Be Dead_ walks the line of rock / metal of the typically Solitude Productions' broken-hearted without being genuinely heart-broken or grief-stricken.

Infinitely forgettable latter-day Katatonia and lightweight metallic simplicity galore embodied in an unsuccessful admixture, this album is a big no-no for any doom fanatic out there, a statistic in a series of failures in the doom/death department courtesy of Solitude et al., together with the latest Revelations of Rain and When Nothing Remains, a label that has back to back released some supreme masterpieces alongside these aforementioned failures; an album that is a crash course in doom 101, chapter 4, titled: "How you -don't- write and play quality doom metal".

Go on and read that chapter, as it says everything there is to know about the ways with which one can kill doom metal; or alternatively, go and listen to this dull, familiar, apologetic recording that's a poor excuse of a metal album.

Author: Chaim Drishner

Review
Forbidden Magazine
11.11.2013

Wine From Tears is one of those bands within one of those genres that results in a love-hate relationship caught within a love-hate relationship for me, in other less confusing words, it’s not my thing but yet I can’t find much fault with it either. At times WFT are very dramatic and almost cliché with their synth backdrops and borderline trance (like the rave/dance music “trance”) music happy melodies that come awkwardly close to candy coated and dreamy, but just as I get a sense of that and my guts begin to wrench, the songs will suddenly erupt into rages of heavy doom riffing as a bit more gloom and dark emotional tension begins to drown out the frilly shit for a bit. The atmospheres are somewhat romantic tragedy, not too unique in Gothic/funeral/dark doom metal, the lengthy songs are fairly epic yet still very active, and the production as well as musicianship is pretty flawless, but even with those solid foundations scoring in their favor they manage to do something “cute” to make me uncomfortable. But after much deliberation on my part and asking for the assistance of others to help validate my reason(s) for not being able to digest this album as a whole the verdict is that of a “not my thing” by reason of “[the album] being too upbeat(?)”. Seriously? A doom death album that’s not abysmally grim and/or gloriously tragic with a flooding sense of despair and melancholy overload? Yup, and here it is.

So, what exactly makes this otherwise stellar album so Prozac/Zoloft infused? Well, they throw in these lighter almost emo moments into songs like the obnoxious radio friendly lyrics of stuff like ‘…can’t you see I’m broken?…’ done in lame, whimpy clean vocals like they do in “What Are You Waiting For” , an otherwise pretty damn killer doom song comprised of premium structures and dynamics, especially when it finally bludgeons itself into a catchy and thunderous climax over halfway through it’s duration. The leads are also remarkable as they sort of round out the definitive drum work patterns and balance the effect of the deeper gruff vocals, but as much as I really really really want to love this song it’s the shiny happy vocal stuff and the dinky single note piano “tink…tink” repeating underneath that makes it a bit more Sunday morning drizzle than torrential downpour as far as I’m concerned. And now that I’ve begun to let it rip (and for once NOT meaning something ejecting from my ass) I’m now moving on to the fourth song, “In Memory of the Truth”, where the band persists to continue to rot my teeth out and then suddenly, as always, about halfway through the song they turn things around and start to lay down some rhythm force via stomping grooves, they then procede to slug out a few good heavy tones and even add in some fuzz to buff out the chords a bit. Sounding pretty good right? EEERRRRRRRNNTTTT, wrong again.

Yet again the leads are sharp and lethal and I’m on dangling over the edge of this perceived crevasse of utter blackness anticipating being blown off into the void as the song finally delivers the deathblow I’ve been hoping for to redeem itself and then the damn thing just diffuses into lame yet again. It literally fizzles out like Alka Seltzer that’s been sitting for a few minutes, you get all the hiss and bubbles and then suddenly all of the gas is gone and it’s just flat citrus flavored liquid, it’s the same here. You’d think all that commotion would deliver something a bit more intense, but at least with AS you get a nifty buzz about 20 minutes later and feel sleepy and you can breathe better, with WFT you just feel kinda cheated. Honestly, for my taste the band really needs to make a decision as to whether they want to be sold in a Hot Topic mall store as metal or if they want to actually be a metal band, but at the same time I honestly love most of what they fucking do here I’d just like to prune it a bit to keep the emotion and intensity high but get rid of the feminine moments. I’m a pretty feminine woman too, but do prefer my tragedies to be more Poe than Emily Bronte.

Please keep in mind, especially those familiar with my tastes (or lack thereof depending on who you ask) that I’ve really really really tried to swallow this one fervently for many months now and just can’t without choking on it. I’ve never been a fan of this style, even going back to My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost, it’s awesome but still tastes either too much like cotton candy or is too gothic romance novel for me. If those bands and others similar are to your liking then Wine From Tears and their sophomore effort Glad To Be Dead are an absolute “must” hear, the have been receiving well deserved praise and have been continually compared with Swallow the Sun. But even if you’re more in line with my reactions to this sort of band/album than at least hear it for your own sake because it’s pretty incredible and well worth hearing and my reviewing it just because it’s that well done, but please don’t expect to fall in love with it.

If I were to give it a grade ironically it’d be an A, but that’s based on general quality because Glad to Be Dead has many seriously wicked moments that are impossible to overlook, I just wish that it sounded more like “Glad to Be Dead” than “Glad to Be Alive”.

Author: Janet Willis