Customer Reviews

Beyond My Grey Wake

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

How Like a Winter receive their name from a Shakespeare sonnet and their lyrics are greatly influenced by him.

The CD starts out with A Flower That Sears in Silence which is a great doom laden song. Expressive growls by pianist/vocalist Dust start the song off as female voices chime in during the later parts of the song.

The next song, All the Seasons of Madness, which I believe to be the highlight of the album, is a lengthy song (7:57) that changes greatly throughout the entire piece. The song starts off with the band members chanting, "I hope into this morning..." and is then torn apart by growling. Slow passages soon embrace the listener and a violin comes in. The song is changed in tempo throughout the entire song, but goes back to its original lyrics and tone towards the end.

Laying Together Again starts off with a lengthy piano solo and clean male vocals come in towards the middle. The song's vocals are mostly chanted and create a desolate mood while female vocals offset the chorus.

Bescreen'd, is in vain of Shakespeare's balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet and is also a lengthy song (10:37), but unlike All the Seasons of Madness, it keeps its tempo consistent throughout the entire song. There is no growling in this song, only clean male vocals and the violin is heard here perhaps the most in any track.

Who is Hiding, is an instrumental piano solo reminiscent of romantic period composers. While it's their shortest song, it still has much to offer. Dust really showcases his piano skills in this track leaving the listener wishing the song would be longer.

Crucifige is one of the more faced paced songs on the album. It starts off with sounds of nails being hit onto a cross. Vocals are both growled and clean in this piece which adds variety, while female vocals are only heard to the end when reciting a passage from the bible with the male counterpart.

In XCVII, the band displays their love for Shakespeare by creating a song in which they get their name. Only the piano and violin are mostly heard throughout this song while the male vocals are more spoken than sung. The female voice takes hold after every quatrain (4 lines in a sonnet) in a quite operatic feel.

The Night, Then Him starts off with about a minute of abstract noises. Growling soon interrupts the beginning in which female voices sing amidst them. A short violin solo leads way to female singing in which then leads to more growling.

How Like a Winter end their album with an instrumental, So Death Would Be Just a Bad Dream. It's mostly a piano solo once again. Towards the end of the song, silence occurs for a couple of minutes and then the listener hears chanting to finish off the record.

All in all, HLAW is not for everyone. Many will be dismissed just from looking at their name. It should be noted, however, that HLAW's music is far from being clichéd. Many may argue the My Dying Bride influences, but they create music of their own leading the listener with a cold kiss in their heart.

First of all I'd like to congratulate you for finding this rare gem cause not many people are this far into underground metal. Now onto the review, as I've said above this is the most depressing album I've ever heard. The music is remiscent of early My Dying Bride and the whole album just carries an atmosphere of sadness. There are three vocalists, two female singers and a male vocalist who does the growling vocals and also sings. All of them do a very good job, the female singers sound sort of cold and distant.(I mean that in a good way)and the male singer sounds like Mike Ackerfeldr(Opeth) during the death metal metal parts and sort of like Johan Edlunds(Tiamat) or that guy from Theatre of Tradgedy during the clean parts. This is one of the only bands I know of that features a violinist as a full time member and they use the violin in places many other bands would use keyboards. I know what your thinking: violin, female vocals mixed with death metal, sounds pretty cliche dosen't it? I can tell with full confidence that HLAW pulls it off extradonarily well though. Where other bands oversaturate their music with exotic instruments to make up for a lack of ideas, HLAW uses them only when it is neccassary. I would give this a 5 stars but some of the songs drag on and they take the Shakespeare lyrical influences over the top sometimes. This is their first album, so some mistakes are to be expected. Definitly has the potential to take the top doom metal spot away from My Dying Bride in the future. I recommend checking out My Dying Bride, Katatonia, Anathema, Tristania, Sirenia or Tiamat in addition to this.

I know I have been pushing it by listing some bands under the Gothic category simply by throwing in Gothic Metal, but you have to understand, through listening to the album, there are so many gothic atmosphere influences in the music. How Like A Winter is no exception. The music is that of Doom Metal, but let me say, it blends with a gothic melodic element. It has that certain symphony, and mind you, the music is very depressing. It is melancholic, beautiful and elegant. The voice in How Like A Winter is your typical Beauty and the Beast female/male vocals. The male vocal is very sombre and romantic, also very commanding. A standout song for me was "Bescreen'd," because when the vocals come alive, towards the middle of the song, it truly captures your attention. It commanderes your attention, making you listen to that all empowering Dracula depth voice. The passion in the male vocals is very deep, very literate and poetic. There is a life within the music itself, which makes it very attractive. The guitars are nothing too intense which cannot be listened to by the occasional metal ears. The elegance of this album lies in the fact that it's classical combined with doom combined with some elements of gothic atmosphere. Everything in sequence is beautiful, the strings make me want to tear up. No synthesizers here, all the music you hear are played by real musicians. Agony, the violinist, brings a deeper cut to the music. Recommended for anyone who listens to Theatre of Tragedy, Sirenia, and Virgin Black.

Lately, I have been in the habit of just walking into the cd store and just picikng up whatever used cds look cool (cover, band name, song titles). This time I made a very good choice. I am a fan of almost all metal,(not nu-metal tho) epecially power metal and black metal. However, it seems that the black metal scene has become homogenized. They all sound like everyone's favorite sellouts, Cradle Of Filth or Dimmu Borgir. Female vocals are added as a last minute filler, and are usually employed badly into the music. The rest (Mayhem) have gone techno or something very much like it. This cd has none of these faults...
This quality is why i fell in love with black metal/goth music. Every element of the music is very near flawless (some of the K/B seems a little off timing but doesn't hurt the music at all), The effects are blended with the music so well that they dont stand out (trust me, effects that stand out are not good, Hecate Enthroned, Dimmu Borgir again.) Overall, a very dynamic cd that doesn't annoy you halfway through it like most of the music in the genre today.
I would recommend this cd to anyone into black/extreme/goth metal.

Beautiful, ethereal, full of despair and yet cryptically full of hope. Although labeled as doom metal, How Like A Winter has created an album that goes beyond mere metal. The music is beautifully constructed around a combination of death vocals, clean male vocals and female vocals. The music is adorned with stunning piano and orchestra-like arrangements giving it a classical feel. Although heavy at times the album is more of a low-key introspective album that is full of despair yet at the same time serves as inspiration. I frequently take walks on forest trails near my home and this album has been listened to the most on my IPOD. While walking placidly with nature, this album really takes you away for an hour to the point where I would call it self-therapy.

This is a great Gothic Doom Album. HLAW mixed clean female vocals with the male singers growls. I would have to say they don't go over the top with the shakespeare influence. They have this album "Beyond My Grey Wake" and "The Winter's Near."
Recommendations: The Sins of thy Beloved, Theatre of Tragedy, Macbeth, and Draconian.

While this band's song structures are similar to those of lackluster bands like The Sins of Thy Beloved, their talent can hardly be described as mediocre. Each song has the ability to hold the listener's attention all the way through, and features three highly capable vocalists. The keyboardist, Dust, is one powerful and talented musician. He is also the lead vocalist; his style ranges from a highly-distorted growl to a beautiful deep singing voice, similar to Tristania's Østen Bergøy except a little more melodic. Actually, he sounds a lot like Theatre of Tragedy's Raymond Rohonyi at the Norwegian singer's best. Ironic, as both HLAW and TOT use the late great Sir William Shakespeare as their lyrical influence (and it's not overboard, as one reviewer states; he is their inspiration, so why not pay homage to one of the greatest English poets of all time?). There are three males (keys/vocals, guitar, bass) and three females (2 vocals, violin) in this band, which hails from Italy. The violinist Agony is really good, but I wish she would've played more. The drums are programmed, but they sound amazing. I'm not sure which female singer is which, but I think Misery is the lead and Tragedy (she's very pretty, by the way) is the one with the more operatic chanting voice. Misery isn't so great, but sounds awesome in "All the Seasons of Madness" when she sings in harmony with Dust. The guitars are pretty good, although they sound muffled in the electric regime. The acoustic and classical guitars, on the other hand, are some of the best I've heard, right up there with Agalloch. I'd highly recommend this album to fans of such great bands as Tristania, My Dying Bride (whom they're all big fans of), and other gothic & doom metal. Black & death metallers will probably like it if they like classical-influenced symphonic stuff, as well. But like Tristania, this isn't for people who only listen to stuff like Xandria and Nightwish, who like their music to be all soft and pretty and happy and who are afraid of a little growling.

The other reviewers have already done this disc justice and I can add little to state how incredible this music really is. The only comment that I have is that the disc arrives un-shrink wrapped even though it is new.

This album is awesome. It is a truly awesome first record. This has EVERY element of Doom known to man. All chopped and stitched back up in a near perfect way that makes you ask,"How could they top this?"

If Agalloch hadn't done that to me first, this album would have gotten five stars. Any fan of Doom should surely own this album.

The coolest thing about this album is definitely the drumming. Some of the off-time kick patterns are AWESOME. Why don't more band's do that? You can bet your last dollar that they will now.

They know how to record a doom album too. This record is so clean, so heavy it will knock you on your ass. Then so mellow, then so heavy. A good record and one band to look forward to hearing from again