Wine From Tears - Through The Eyes Of A Mad (CD)

Review
Live 4 Metal

Rounding off my day of Doom are Russian Death/Doom merchants, Wine From Tears, who don't seem to have moved on much from the mid 90s. Being perfectly honest, there's not an awful lot to get excited about here, despite the music being of a very good standard. The problem is, that Wine From Tears are treading very old ground and they offer nothing new to a style that's been done to death for about 15 or so years. Yes, the melodies are good, the songs are of an ok standard, but there are no peaks and the vocal style is very predictable. As there are no highs to get to excited over, that leaves the listener in a state of mundane apathy. Especially when the album is 77 minutes long and I was looking for the Valium by track 4.

Review
The Streets
5/10
30.08.2009

Hvis du klarer å komme deg forbi den ekstremt klisne introen, så avsløres det iørefallende og småromatisk Death/Doom. Lyden er bra og sånn passe symfonisk. Du bør for all del unngå å lese tekstene, for de er langt under pari. Kanskje ikke så rart, siden bandet er fra Russland. Utover i plata bikker de over i mer symfonisk Gothic Metal, uten å være blant de mest sukkersøte innen genren. Det mikses også inn noen doser Black Metal, men akkurat det var ingen suksess for å si det mildt. Som en del andre band som blir sluppet via Solitude/BadMoonMan, sliter også dette bandet med å lage engasjerende musikk. Det blir iallfall total overdose med tolv låter og en varighet på 77 minutter. Som debutalbum er dette helt akseptabelt, med en solid plassering midt på treet.

Author: Rune

Review
Metalrage.com
6/10
10.08.2009

Though The Eyes Of A Mad? A mad what? Check your English before releasing a record please, haha! No matter, it’s the music that should do the speaking for them. What we have here is yet another clone of the funeral doom legends. Them being bands like My Dying Bride, Katatonia, Paradise Lost, Saturnus, Anathema and you know what I mean. Yet this clone is not one of high quality, yet. Formed in 2002, this is only just their debut album. But their guitarist seems to be a huge fan of guitarists like Joe Satriani and John Petrucci and stuff. Which means he has a very penetrating and apparent guitar sound, which kind of spoils the whole atmosphere for me. It’s depressing and melancholic of course, but then there just keeps being a guy doing solo stuff over it. Too much melody man! That’s a no no for me! Especially when it lasts for over 77 minutes!

Well I’ll take into consideration that this is probably the first time they really get feedback on their music since it’s their debut record. So I’ll say that it’s a fine way to start out, they should just think more about dynamics then about filling every inch of this record with melody. Just pound out a deadly doom riff a bit more often! Through The Eyes Of A Mad is a decent start from Wine From Tears, but they still have a long way to go before they’ll really hit the spot.

Author: DemonDust

Review
PAVILLON 666
7.5/10
20.07.2009

L’histoire de WINE FROM TEARS commence en 2002 et après bien des remaniements de line up, ce groupe russe sort en 2009 son premier album, « Through the Eyes of a Mad. » La longue épopée qu’a du connaître le groupe explique sans doute le fait que le combo ait tenu à offrir un album aussi long. En sept ans, on peut supposer que le groupe ait disposé de suffisamment de temps pour écrire et composer. Cette divagation n’enlève en rien la qualité musicale du groupe qui nous offre un doom aux relents de KATATONIA fort agréables. La Russie semble disposer de groupes fort intéressants qui ne demandent qu’à s’exporter. En voilà un bel exemple.

Oubliez tous vos préjugés sur cette contrée qui a connu bien des déboires depuis sa Révolution d’Octobre. Il est difficile de se représenter l’ampleur du mouvement metal dans ce pays. Notre vision est sûrement encore faussée par ce que l’on peut en apprendre. Dans tous les cas, la production de cet album est impeccable, tout à fait à la hauteur de ce qu’on peut attendre de n’importe quel album actuel. Musicalement, il est vrai que WINE OF TEARS ne fait pas preuve d’une grande originalité. Ce premier album ressemble à pas mal de choses que l’on peut entendre chez KATATONIA, surtout à ses débuts. Cependant, la maîtrise du groupe fait que l’on est tout de même vite emporté par ce flot d’émotions pas toujours très joyeuses. C’est le principe de ce style en même temps. L’écoute globale n’en est toutefois pas moins agréable.

Quelques titres ont particulièrement retenu mon attention. Je pense en particulier à « Feeding The Angel », morceau sur lequel on peut entendre la voix de Elvira FATYHOVA, invitée sur ce titre. La présence d’un chant féminin contraste avec les voix gutturales que l’on peut apprécier sur le reste de l’album. « Close To Katatonia » porte excessivement bien son nom. En effet, il est difficile de savoir si c’est un clin d’œil assumé ou pas, mais dans tous les cas, ce titre rappelle énormément la musique de la formation suédoise. Ce type de morceau aux ambiances riches en claviers et en mélodies guitares contraste radicalement avec « Since I Fell… » en ouverture d’album, ou encore « Bless Me Bleeding Angels. » Ces deux morceaux ont un style beaucoup plus proche du doom traditionnel très lent et très pesant, un peu à la manière des anglais de MY DYING BRIDE. Cela permet aussi à l’album de ne pas tomber dans une sorte de rengaine. En variant les ambiances et les tempos, WINE FROM TEARS évite le phénomène de remplissage du à une répétition de formules toutes faites.

Il n’y a plus qu’à souhaiter à WINE FROM TEARS de sortir des frontières de la Russie et s’exporter dans le reste de l’Europe. Ce groupe mérite notre attention pour son professionnalisme et sa qualité. Certes, le doom n’est pas excessivement populaire par rapport à d’autres styles de metal mais, un peu de curiosité pour certains et une envie de découvrir de nouveaux groupes pour d’autres devrait permettre à ce groupe de bénéficier d’un soutien suffisant pour nous présenter rapidement un deuxième album.

Author: CHART

Review
Metal Rewievs
8.5/10
08.08.2009

So here it is – my first real surprise discovery as a reviewer! And boy, did it surprise me. I figured that my surprise virginity would be taken by something along the lines of new a Black Metal outfit with various notable influences from other genres and strong progressive tendencies, or perhaps from the latest Technical Death Metal prodigy that managed to find the perfect line straddling technicality and brutality. But this did not come to pass, as my first big surprise came out of a genre that I have next to no former experience with: Doom Metal. I’ve always been a bit iffy over the Doom style as a whole; I only ever saw it as a mostly uninteresting genre that was good for a soundtrack to your depression and for music to fall asleep to. Russian band Wine From Tears is great for both the former and the latter, yet there’s more to them than that. This is some of the most sorrowful, melodic, and gorgeous music I’ve ever heard. Perhaps that’s only because I’ve been missing out on 99% of all Doom Metal for the past four years; maybe this sound style is extremely common, going on strongly in the underground while simultaneously being completely unnoticed by this reviewer. But ignorance is bliss, and I enjoyed Wine From Tears debut so much that it makes me want to take up a higher interest in the Doom scene.

Wine From Tears play extremely melodic, keyboard-and-lead-guitar-centric Doom Metal on their debut, Through The Eyes Of A Mad (Through The Eyes Of A Mad… what, exactly? Did someone die midway through coming up with the title?). Many of the tracks are very slow-paced, mainly relying on long, simplistic yet stunning guitar lines with minimal drum work, backed by strong, sweeping synths that are in no way subtle. Since I Fell… , Bless Me Bleeding Angels, and Feeding The Angel are all examples of this style. Other songs are mid-paced, leaning almost to radio-friendly levels with standard chord structure, such as Funeral Time and Close To Katatonia (The first of these being very good, the second... not so much.). It’s in the former that Wine For Tears really shines, as some of the lead guitar lines are remarkable in their simplicity, especially when backed by the majestic keys. Some traditional doomy riffs are present, , shown especially on tracks like Night Of A Succubus, Before the Gods, and Meus Alitus Pater Noster, but even those songs are still carried by Wine From Tears’ signature melodic elements.

The vocals on Through The Eyes Of A Mad are, for the most part, nothing special. Wine From Tears’ singer pretty much plays it safe, sticking to low, deathy growls for most of the album. But he does show off a different, slightly blackened singing style on Meus Alitus Pater Noster, and his clean singing voice on My Tears, which, while not particularly mind-blowing, it’s a nice way to mix things up, and his singing voice fits in very well on that track. It’s easily one of the best on the album, and one of the saddest-sounding songs I’ve ever heard. Another track, Feeding The Angel, features clean female vocals that are actually really good; not too over-the-top, but not weak whatsoever. Most of the lyrics talk about personal emotions and angels, which almost leads me to believe that Wine From Tears is a Christian band.

Though it has some weak moments, such as the ridiculous synths on The Secrets Of The Woods and the boring acoustic stretches on The Sinner, plus the rather bland song Close To Katatonia, Through The Eyes Of A Mad ultimately holds up as a very memorable experience throughout the seventy-seven (!) minute journey thanks to beautiful lead guitar melodies (think Amon Amarth) and diverse songs. This is definitely my surprise of the month, if not of 2009, and fans of any kind of melodic metal will hopefully find a lot to like with Wine From Tears. As I mentioned earlier though, it’s all too easy for this album to relax you and put you to sleep, so it’ll probably take a few listens for the music to really sink in. Once it does though, it’s a real treat.

Author: Kyle