Customer Reviews

Love Poems for Dying Children: Act II

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CHILD: Do they ever sing?
THE BEAUTIFUL: Alas, they do not sing but songs
of woe and remembrance.
CHILD: Do the children ever dance?
THE BEAUTIFUL: Alas, they can dance no more.
CHILD: Do the children ever laugh?
THE BEAUTIFUL: Alas, their laughter can be heard no more
CHILD: Do the children ever play?
THE BEAUTIFUL: Alas, Their days of playing have long
since ended.
And so forth......

So begins the second installment of a remarkable story, The Garden of Crystalline Dreams. There are actually three Love Poems for Dying Children, Act I - Reprise, this album, Act II - The Garden of Crystalline Dreams and Act III - Winter and the Broken Angel. They are all quite similar - melancholic dark atmospheric music - so you can buy one, or if you like you can buy all three. I'm a purest, so one of something I really like when three are available is not good enough, so I have all three and this review is about all three as a unit.

Love Poems for Dying Children Act II comes in a colorful digipack with excellent artwork. One might almost buy this extraordinary album just for the exceptional artwork.

Autumn Tears consists of a nucleus of Ted and Erica (last names not given) on Act II and an additional female singer, Jennifer, and some guest artists on Acts I & III, which are not readily available. When I listen to Act I, I think it is my favorite, however, when I listen to Act II, I think the same thing and so-forth for Act III, so I guess I don't have a favorite. All tracks are outstanding and it is hard to single out any special tracks because the tracks seem to run together as a package standing together rather than separately.

I always marvel how some composers such as Ted can visualize in their head what something will sound like. Ted seems to be very good at it and I find his music both alluring and inspirational. As the title of these three works would imply, the music is sad, dark, ethereal and atmospheric, but also very very pretty.

Various keyboards seem to be Ted's instrument of choice. The ladies have beautiful voices and the arrangements are superb. This is the kind of music you can sit and absorb every note or it could easily be used as background music.
Although the music is dark it is not dreary. When I listen to it I feel uplifted, like I'm walking through a beautiful formal garden with fountains, sculptures, flowers and large mature trees and shrubs.

Similar artists? I could name a few similar darkwave (melancholic dark atmospheric music) artists. France's Dark Sanctuary, Austria's Dargaard (also a duo), Sweden's Arcana (another duo) and Australia's Avrigus come to mind. This must be a labor of love because this music is not for the mainstream masses but, if exposed to it, I'll wager a surprising number of people would appreciate it, if not be converted.

This is not good music. The style they play is one that could, and in a lot of cases does, interest me... but this band is NOT capable of pulling it off without having SERIOUS cheese issues. The music lacks any sense of dynamics, and is virtually monotone throughout the entire CD. There are occasional (poorly done) growls, and rediculous dialogue aplenty if that's your thing. These guys seem to take themselves too seriously for how convincing they are with it. Some bands have similar ideals, but are much MUCH better at pulling it off. Arcana, which was mentioned in the other review, is a good example of a band with much MUCH greater success at pulling off the style without sounding rediculous. The melodic ideas of Autumn Tears are so very mickey mouse in their simplicity, and there's no dense layering, nor effective use of reverb and delay, which is something fairly important to the style.

If you are looking for something in this style, i do not reccomend this band. Arcana is a far better choice, though even they are not so convincing at times. Their latest (Le Serpente Rouge) is their most mature album yet, but it leaves behind this style a fair bit, and is more of an ambient/middle eastern album, reminding of being lost alone in a sweltering desert. Another band worth mentioning is Elend. A fair amount more agressive, they are right now THE band doing this sort of thing, with production miles beyond this, and songs that actually go places. Their first 2 albums resemble the Autumn Tears style, but they really hit their stride from the 3rd album on. Winds Devouring Men comes most highly reccomended.

Ok, where was i... oh yeah, Autumn Tears. This CD had only one song which i thought had any saving grace, and that was The Ebony Meadow. This song actually makes an attempt to develop and has a certain sense of atmosphere severely lacking in the others. Pity it ends right when it gets really interesting though... If this band got rid of the laughably unconvincing dialogue, cheesy synths, and put more effort into the actual "sound" of the album, it would be a lot better. I haven't heard anything more recent, but perhaps they have remedied this problem.