Autrest – Follow the Cold Path
Autrest – Follow the Cold Path
Northern Silence Productions
Release Date: 02/06/23
Running Time: 42:35
Review by Laura Barnes
9/10
Ah, another day, another one-man black metal band. On today’s agenda is Autrest, a folk-inspired, atmospheric act from Brazil. “Follow The Cold Path” is Autrest’s debut album, and a good look at the album’s cover tells you what to expect. We see a painted landscape, autum trees lining a snow-caked path, while a jagged mountain looms above. There are no people, no animals. There is only nature, beautiful and intimidating.
I chose the words ‘beautiful’ and ‘intimidating’ because these are also the two words best suited to describe this album. Fierce and melodic, “Follow The Cold Path” is an album with a wide emotional scope, interested in areas where the positive and negative overlap. It even uses its production to embrace this uncertainty: the vocals seem to be deliberately muffled over the creepy guitars and unrelenting drums. You can catch words and phrases here and there, but their true meaning is obscured – like cries for help being swallowed by the wind.
The album drifts into being with the cinematic ‘December Dusk’. Ethereal strings collide with the spidery, tremolo-picked guitars which define black metal, creating an overwhelming emotional soundscape that goes beyond simple joy or sadness. Think about the peace that accompanies loneliness, and you’ll have an inkling of what this track accomplishes. ‘Watchtower’ is less interested in complexities, choosing instead to grab its listener by the shoulders and drag them into foggy caverns. Spectacularly bleak, this track leans into more traditional black metal techniques with an ice cold riff and aggressive vocals, and at times even wanders into DSBM territory. ‘Time is a River’ sees Autrest at its most ambitious – nine minutes long and epic, this is exactly what atmospheric black metal should sound like. Despite the distinct nature of each song, each track follows on beautifully from the last, giving the feeling of a gradually changing landscape. As cheesy as it may be, “Follow the Cold Path” sounds like taking a journey that is lonely and difficult, but necessary if you are to become the person you want to be. As the climatic track of the album, the searing ‘Pale Days’ encapsulates this feeling perfectly. Matheus Vidor’s vocals sound like the howls of a person who may have survived looking into the abyss, but will never, ever forget what they saw there and the haunting pianos of outro track ‘The Place Where I Belong’ ask the question: what will become of me now?
Really, the biggest criticism one can make about Autrest is that there are a lot of bands making this kind of music. As atmospheric black metal goes, tremolo-picking and a profound respect for nature are well trodden territories, and as a result this release may pass some black metal fans by. But is conforming to genre conventions necessarily a bad thing? I don’t think so, especially not when the result sounds as beautiful and compelling as this. It’s just like I said earlier: this is EXACTLY what atmospheric black metal is supposed to sound like.
TRACKLISTING:
01. December Dusk
02. Follow the Cold Path
03. Watchtower
04. Time Is A River
05. Firelight
06. Pale Night
07. The Place Where I Belong
LINE-UP:
Matheus Vidor – Everything
LINKS:
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