Eternal, the most recent work by Dutch band An Autumn for Crippled Children, is a great, sensational and astonishing album, that certainly has everything to be considered a masterpiece. With a powerful, effective and expansive mixture of post-black metal, black metal and experimental music – sometimes flirting with a more traditional approach to rock’n’roll as well – Eternal is a majestic and exceedingly artistic album. With ten tracks, being them eternal youth, i will never let you die, on fire, farewell, this small space you occupied is so empty now, you have been in the shadows for so long, days of sleep, swallowed by night's despair, cloud mood and matters of the heart, An Autumn for Crippled Children’s music is characterized by a proficient and prominent poetic melancholy, that drives the listener all the way throughout their music, being efficiently melodic, but never slow. With beautiful melodies, and songs with a “normal” duration – which means that these songs are not as long as usually seen in most post-black metal albums –, even the brand “post-black metal” possibly does not apply here, despite some elements, and most prominently, the vocals.
With the beauty of their own style, and a highly solid stream of pungent melodies, traditional rock’n’roll elements are everywhere to be seen, as the basic axis of their music. With a poetic beauty that accurately surfaces as the mostly sincere and complacent driving force, serenity and resilience appears to be the greatest components of Autumn for Crippled Children’s music. A beautiful album that really transcends all explanations, Eternal erodes, transforms and dissipates tranquility and calmness, by the fluidity of a sound that seems to be an everlasting light. Resounding with an incredible sense of balance and equilibrium, Eternal is a masterpiece, that should transcend the underground boundaries, and achieve mainstream status, for such a marvelous state of the art groundbreaking work cannot be known only to a few thousand insiders.
With powerful lines of guitar, sincerely scathing vocals, enchanting harmonies, dilaceration and majestic rhythms, and a fantastic convergence of all of its elements, Eternal is material for major record companies, and worldwide distribution. Having never listened to something so incredibly poetic, intense and artistic on the genre, Eternal is an album that literally made me speechless. An enormous and gigantic work of musical expression, An Autumn for Crippled Children certainly is today oe of the most promising acts in the Dutch underground scene, having such a powerful and compelling degree of originality, that it will be a major waste not to thrown them to a higher place, where they definitely belong.
Eternal is a majestic album. Certainly one of the best albums of 2016, it is destined to be hailed as a major masterpiece, and an impressive artistic achievement, for its ability to create sound at the rhythm of stars and galaxies. A phenomenal monument, it is the indefinite, ethereal and perfect embodiment of a priceless musical legacy. (Source: http://www.merchantsofair.com/reviews/an-autumn-for-crippled-children-eternal)
“Eternal” album is planned was released on October 27th, 2016. The main theme’s on this album is the the usual deadly mixture of decay, sense of loss & scent of death. Rotten, polluted & abrasive as AAFCC are able to deliver.
The band fall into the murky subgenre of post Black Metal meets Shoegaze but have an uncanny knack of being able to set themselves aside from their contemporaries by throwing in subtle melodic passages and incredibly catchy riffs, that many other projects in this field are simply unable to replicate. Opening track, ‘Eternal Youth’ is a good example of everything that the band are attempting to achieve with this album, an almost dream like and uplifting background wall of guitar and synth, pushing forward the deliberately undecipherable vocal to wreak havoc with your emotions. So often I come across albums by bands that have all the elements individually but for whatever reason are falling short by not getting it all together to form the finished article. AAFCC on this album, and indeed previous releases , come across as masters of weaving the perfect blend of depressive imagery and feeling, decay and hopelessness, ultimately producing a wonderful web of soaring and thought provoking music. A trick that maybe someone like Alcest are able to achieve but to be honest, I can not think of many others
Media Reviews
- "The band again elevates themselves far beyond their previous effort by delivering a thrilling and poignant journey with their individualistic form of black metal." - Pure Grain Audio (Ratings 8.5/10).
- "If you can take the leap of faith and become immersed in this album, you will not be disappointed, from beginning to end, a faultless collection of sadness and despair, Music from black hearts for lost souls." - Planet Mosh (Ratings ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐).
"AAfCC have ripped out the sadness and vitriol from metal and the result is inoffensive and unexciting. In fact, “ripped” is too aggressive a verb. “Coaxed” perhaps. Or “elicited.” What remains is flat, uninspired and fails to resonate. Their music is best described as an indistinct haze of muted hopefulness but never has it been more indistinct nor muted." - Angry Metal Guy (Ratings 1.5/5).
"Eternal isn't a drastic departure from the band's recent offerings. But place it right next to the debut album Lost and the evolution is evident, with MCHL's furious shrieks being the last real link to black metal. It's due to this broadening of the band's soundscape that we can actually see AAFCC as a "band". What makes them special is that it does feel like a real ensemble without machines is playing beneath the music." - Sputnik Music (Ratings 3.5/5).
Status: Active
Years Active: 2008-Present
LINE UP
MCHL – Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards
TD – Bass, Keyboards
CHR – Drums
Country of Origin: Netherlands
Location: Friesland
Genre: Post-Black Metal
Current Label: Wickerman Recordings
Booking/Press Contact: crippled_children@hotmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/aafcc2009
Bandcamp: http://anautumnforcrippledchildren.bandcamp.com
Myspace: http://myspace.com/crippledchildren2009
SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/aafcc
Eternal (Full-Length Album - 2016)
Released: October 27th, 2016
DIGITAL DISTRIBUTORS
OFFICIAL DISTRIBUTORS
Bigcartel: Wickerman Records
Australia: Modern Invasion
Benelux: Bertus
Finland: Supersound
France: Season of Mist / Soundworks
Germany: Cargo / Intergroove
Italy: Audioglobe / Goodfellas
Japan: Art Union / Disk Union
Norway: Tuba
Sweden: Sound Pollution
UK: Code7
USA: SuperD / Alliance & Digital Waves
