Yet another project featuring the considerable and wholly intriguing talents of Australia’s Tim Yatras (also of Germ, Austere, Grey Waters, etc., and is going under the name of “Sorrow”), Autumn’s Dawn sees Yatras team up with guitarist Matthew Ball (he be called “Anguish”) who does time in most notably, Rise of Avernus. Side projects-aplenty now out of the way, Autumn’s Dawn play a compelling mix of depressive black metal paired with sorrowful rock, corralled in the nine songs found on their Gone debut. Given Yatras’s growing reputation as someone able to harness song-first ideas over presentation, it’s no surprise then, that Gone is quite the melodic, even, and hummable listen.
Imagine the look of the black-rim glasses crowd upon first hearing opener “The Ashes of a Life,” which is almost indie rock-like in its approach, but hovers around Yatras’s sorely-missed Grey Waters project, just without the noticeable Katatonia influence. This is where the catch with Autumn’s Dawn lies – clean vocals. Yatras isn’t your typical moan-and-drone dark vocalist; he’s got some mild EMO croon in him, albeit not enough to ruin the whole thing, but it’s certainly there. “Until My Heart Corrodes With Rust” is perhaps most exemplary of what AD is trying to accomplish: Driving, dissonant black metal in the verse, then a clean vocal chorus, which when done properly (like it is here), can work rather well.
One would certainly favor the more adventurous, humming, and blacked-up trip found on the instrumental “Into the Cold,” or “When the Sun Sets for the Last Time,” a song that isn’t a terrible reach from what Lantlos is currently doing, or when Alcest was still interested in metal. But really, making Gone work is about balancing the aforementioned “The Ashes of a Life,” or tried-and-true sad rock of “Blank Stare, Dead Eyes,” which virtually negates any sort of BM leanings the band has. If one can make amends with such happenings (it’s easier than you think – these songs are good), then Autumn’s Dawn should have an impact.