Upon Wings - Afterlife
CD Info
2012
Sword of the Spirit Records / USA
4 Tracks
English Lyrics
I get excited about American symphonic metal about as often as the Cubs win the Pennant. Which is to say, not very often. But then, I hear it about as often as the Milwaukee Bucks win the NBA Championship. Which is . . . well, you get the picture. But, hot damn, it’s turning up on the NORAD radar all of a sudden. And, wonder of wonders, this one’s in my neighborhood. Now this is just an EP, which is ordinarily not something to get all that excited about. But, when Polka music has been the staple of your musical diet for a year, and Country Western before that, you take your musical experiences of this kind very seriously, ain’a. And, it’s not the only solid symphonic stuff from the land of Lincoln I’ve heard lately. But, I’ll leave the others to our Western brethren. This is good enough to make an impression. And, it’s from Michigan, which, back in the day, ruled the musical world but has since been somewhat lacking. Well, this release takes from some Michigan music that has been relevant and takes it into our realm.
Upon Wings is a solid symphonic metal sound with a vocal that comes pretty close to the top femme metal operatic sounds from Western Europe. The band went to an interesting technical dude to move things foreword. That’s Glen Brown, who is linked to one of my favorites, Kid Rock. He did the latest Kid Rock and then moved on to do this. And he did more than the technical stuff, he played keys and synths here which is not all that divorced from the typical Kid Rock sound, hard as that may be to accept. Beyond that, there’s a number of solid musicians involved in the production, some of them notable. Principle among them may be Brett Hestla (Ex-Creed, Dark New Day) who does limited vocal duty, as well as guitarist Kevin Jardine, best known as the guitarist of Canadian nu metal giants SLAVES ON DOPE and drummer Peter Tzaferis. There’s been a lot written about this relatively limited EP in the press, most of it American of course. And they use the term Gothic quite a bit, and compare the sound to Leaves Eyes from Europe. Well, first off, Leaves Eyes isn’t Gothic (that from Liv Christine herself to me over a cold beer in Raleigh not that long ago) and second, Kid Rock may see this as Gothic but I don’t think Morton Veland would necessarily classify it that way. It may be Gothic in an American sense, but, compared to the Russian witches in Blackthorn, it’s pretty tame stuff. But, it’s certainly more interesting than the vast majority of babble you get from American music. So I’m sure not complaining.
Well, the honcho in all this is the lovely vocalist, Anne Autumn Erickson. And she’s from . . . . . .Jesus, did I say Michigan? And she didn’t sing with the Supremes, ain’a. Well, this is difficult stuff to digest but, well, I’m open to new and interesting propositions. I mean, the Tea Party might come out in favor of Civil Rights in some parallel universe so anything’s possible. But Anne had a vision a couple years ago, not something I haven’t had on more than one occasion after a night of consumption, but hers went in a different direction. She says "I wanted to create music that balanced my mezzo-soprano vocals with hard-hitting rock and metal and some eerie textures." Well, she doesn’t say a lot about the Gothic, but she sure got that interesting eerie textures bit right. This music flows in directions we on this site can be more than comfortable with, but. . . Michigan? I mean, please?
Well, I did ask her about that European thing, after all, the Badgers were playing Michigan this week and I needed a positive argument. Her response: "Good question! It wasn't on purpose at all. It's really interesting, though, because so many people are telling us we have a European sound. My influences come from all over the musical spectrum. Andrew Lloyd Webber and Colm Wilkinson were big growing up. AFI is another influence. I also like a lot of bands who sound nothing like Upon Wings. A few random others: RED, Stone Sour, As I Lay Dying. As for deciding to go in this direction, it just happened organically and naturally."
OK, I’ll give her a pass. But, there’s more here to suggest excellence. The recording was done at Johnny K's Groovemaster Studios in Chicago, where DISTURBED, 3 DOORS DOWN, STAIND and a shit load of other heavy music-makers have laid down solid musical tracks. They clearly didn’t skimp on that aspect either. Fact of the matter is, this is a seriously fine technical production, with a lot of additional excellence in corollary components, solid in so many ways.
The fact that this is only a 4 track EP may be the only limiting statement I can make. Damn, I wish there was more, a lot more. The EP begins with Afterlife, which certainly gives a certain credibility to that "Gothic" label. The lyrics, which are the only lyrics I have to go on, support this direction:
Finding a way to see you / in the Afterlife.
Wondering how to know you / far from here?
Waiting until you greet me / in the Afterlife.
Don’t forget me here!
Well, OK, yea, that’s pretty fooking Gothic. At least compared to the more traditional "Bitch, I’m gonna blow your effing head off" that we get with more typical American material. And that musical direction continues with the second track You Are My Weapon. This is more along the lines of a rocker, but the vocals are dark and seem to drive the instrumental material, which is also more than OK. There’s an underlying sound here that may be keyboard based that makes this a more than interesting sound. You get the crashing guitars and the pounding drums, but, there is a subtle groove under the sound that provides a dark cushion for the vocals.
The third track is Take Away. Again, a bit of a rocker, but one that sounds more like what we might get from Italy, from the Gothic sounds there. Our vocalist is again influenced by the best from Western Europe but here we get a really solid guitar line, more pronounced than what we get on other tracks. And this one demonstrates that solid production work that we can expect from the top American technicians. I mean, dude, Americans ain’t the worst technicians in the world, you just have to give them something other than a bunch of guys bitchin’ with a drum and a waterboard for the instruments.
The top track on the EP has to be the 4th track, The Dream. OK, this is kinda fookin’ Gothic too. Fact, it don’t get much darker than this one. The sound, the lyrics, best as I can figure them out, the entire package. As good as pretty much anything we get from the Dutch. And with a comparable vocal. With this one we recognize there is hope for American music. There are others but, its so rare, we have to celebrate that rare occasion. And this is one of them.
Well, it’s short glimpse, a magical moment, one that only suggests a potential. But, what else do we have. When you can count the American symphonic operatic Gothic moments on your hands, you celebrate those moments. Lets hope this leads to a further development, and soon.
9.5 / 10
