The Mist and the Morning Dew "s/t" CD
[Vendlus]
This is the debut release from this Finnish act (featuring members of Shape of Despair and Finntroll, among others), which I believe is sort of a limited edition (1,000 copies) CD pressing of their demo.  The master tapes were lost so the sound hasn't really been touched up at all, but despite the liner notes referring to a "harsh" production, it really doesn't sound that bad per se.  Sure, it's a little rough around the edges and a smoother, clearer mix would benefit the performances, but you definitely get the idea of what's going on regardless.  For the most part it's midpaced atmospheric metal with a good chunk of doom influences and some folk-ish elements as well.  The songs hover right around six minutes each (give or take) and feature some excellent female singing that could prove massively powerful in their future work.  The riffs are generally midpaced chord progressions with melodic lead lines (usually accented by violin) where distorted guitars are often layered with acoustic passages for a somber sort of vibe - it's pretty standard material, though.  I wouldn't call it generic, nor would I cite any immediate comparisons to other bands of this nature, but there's nothing that particularly separates them from the pack at this point.  A lot of the lead harmonies have a droning quality to them that adds a good ring of sustain to the material (most notably in "Come, to Think of It), often playing a role in how consistent the songs are across the board - granted there's not a terribly large degree of variety in the long run.  "Child of April's Sun" is slightly chunkier in its rhythms and the hints of acoustic playing are pretty damn nice, though I wouldn't call the vocal arrangements as billowy here, granted some of the melody lines are sort of "catchy" in a way.  As mentioned the sound quality is a little rough, but it's not so bad considering the circumstances.  The biggest problem is that the mix is on the noisy side, so the singing isn't as bright as it should be and a lot of the intricacies of the writing are falling by the wayside.  With a more polished sound that would allow some space to the individual elements I'd bet these songs would sound a lot more vibrant and creative, so I'll be very curious to hear the band's future output.  "Tuoni Vie" is an instrumental track from 1999 (the other tracks are fairly dated as well, going back to 2002) that was found during the process of putting this CD together and tacked on as a bonus, and it actually sounds pretty good against the other tracks.  There's a little more distance to the recording, but it's a decent match and doesn't cause significant continuity issues or anything at all.  The layout is nice and consistent and I'm really liking the cover.  Lyrically the material has sort of a poetic kind of thing going on as well: "You brought me the shimmering meadows, and darkest stars at nights, I traveled.  You showed me bitter delights and those moments, I enjoyed..."  I'm not floored by this EP, but I'll certainly be looking forward to hearing their next release.  I'm guessing their songwriting is going to progress into a more diverse and creative area, and when this style is done right I absolutely love it, so... I'm hoping they're going to reach that level shortly. (6/10)
Running time - 32:36, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Child of April's Sun, Tuoni Vie]
Vendlus Records - http://www.vendlus.com

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