Review: Autumn Tears “Eclipse” CD

I've never been a big fan of Autumn Tears, nor this particular form of neoclassical music in general, but I will give them credit for handling themselves with a significantly greater degree of musical maturity on this release than most such artists do. What I mean by that is that this music, while definitely largely based around synths and programmed percussion, definitely uses a strong live instrumentation presence, and the quality of the keyboard tones is far more tasteful here. Sure, some of the drum programming lacks the resonance that it really needs to be completely effective, and occasionally a synth patch here or there will be somewhat cheesy, but for the most part the lush orchestrations are well executed and accented by acoustic guitar, contrabass, flute or clarinet, etc. The recording is also nice and lush, with a solid mix and no real gaps in the end result. Sometimes the vocal layering can get a little heavy-handed during the harmonies and break apart a little bit, but for the most part the lead female vocals are mixed right in against the music. And that's somewhat rare, as often these types of bands will place that operatic singing far above the music, which is irritating as hell. So the way they've lined everything up here makes much more sense. The entire album was recorded across the wide-ranging time span of December 2001 and June 2004, so I imagine a lot of work has gone into this. And yes, there are some annoying tracks. The moaning wails of male/female vocal texture in "The Beauty in All Things" are quite irritating, for example. But "Remember" gets a bit more structured towards its end, with some great acoustic guitars over a concrete drum pattern and an epic harmony with memorable vocal arrangements, and I think that passage is an amazing representation of what this band could be capable of if they explored potentially more "traditional" song structures more often. "Flight" is then among the few tracks that lets male singing take the lead, but the monotone harmonies are really quite good, so I think I'd like to hear the male vocals work together with the operatic female singing more often as well, as this track is a little lacking in dimension to really let the singing go somewhere. "At a Distance" is another strong selection with a slightly more tangible structure, and I enjoy that, but like many of the compositions I find, especially towards the close of the CD, that there's a lack of dynamics - I appreciate the dark, somber atmosphere of the record and its consistency, but there's no doubt that the increased volume and instrumentation in "Remember" really creates a more moving and emotional sensibility. The layout is fairly consistent with lots of bleak and often odd photographs that look rather dated, and a few similar figurative images collaged more artistically with skeletal bird heads and such. Lyrically the tracks are all rather bleak, not really doing much for me overall, but definitely possessing some strong moments. "Treasures of life scorched and ravaged, Earthly seasons burned away, A memory etched like a blackened scar on a shell of what once was beauty..." For what it offers, this is a good record, because despite my personal tastes stacking up against it, I can listen to it, and I actually enjoy a good chunk of it. So fans of this style would be recommended to look into this, as I find it to be a quality representation of this niche of the genre... to the point where, while not quite there with this disc, I could see them actually winning me over in the future.