By Monk
Now and again a band comes along who make you wish that you had discovered them much sooner and had more of a chance to delve into the depths of their back catalogue to develop both a familiarity with and an affection for what they do, allowing them, in the process of making that acquaintance, to invade and infest the darkest recesses of your already darkened soul and bring mysterious light to same. Midas Fall are just such a band.
Much to my chagrin, I only became familiar with the Scottish trio when they swept over my sonic landscape to be included in the most recent edition of our fortnightly #SinglesClub feature, their darkened, post alt-rock emanations proving as depressive as they did enervating, as dank and mysterious as they did enlightened and revelatory. And those are very much the feelings evoked by this, their fifth full-length album.
‘Cold Waves Divide Us’ is a beautifully crafted work of art, melding and moulding soundscapes that move effortlessly from gothic noir through dense passages of almost lethargic and simultaneously overpowering doom, intermingled with brief interjections of stripped-back EDM and even traditional folk music, coupled with swathes of gossamer-like touches of lightness that swirl breathlessly over the top of every aspect of this stunningly realized album.
In common with the rich tonality and contrasting atmospherics evoked by the instrumentation, Elizabeth Heaton’s enigmatic vocals dance and enrapture, taking us on flights of fantastical fancy, luring us into senses of false security before we find ourselves caught in the visceral undertow. Her voice is sublime, one moment delicate and almost indistinct, the next soaring freely above the rest of the nuanced sonic landscape.
A beautiful, lush masterpiece of trans-generic experimentation and extrapolation, ‘Cold Waves…’ is a starkly beautiful album.
- ‘Cold Waves Divide Us‘ is released today (Friday 8 March).
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