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from Blabbermouth It is funeral doom with a touch of class and it's a long one. Sit back and prepare for two whole tracks and 73 minutes of sadness. And you know what? San Francisco's ASUNDER does the genre proud on "Works Will Come Undone". Far more than just belly crawling (ok, there is a lot of crawling), riff clangs, and growls, the album's epic-length tracks take the listener on a journey that goes in many directions, as well as being drenched in majesty. The album is quite beautiful in the way the band reaches down deep and turns emotions inside out. The arrangements on both tracks are exceedingly well done. The guitars of Geoff Evans and vocalist John Gossard craft a slew of terrific riffs. It will surprise no one that the melancholia in the guitar work is omnipresent, whether it is long sections of quiet light picking or mammoth riff crashes. Bassist Salvador Raya and drummer/vocalist Dino Sommese keep things interesting as well, the texture and nuance going a long way when even the slightest bit of coloration can be the difference between captivation and boredom. The X-factor is clearly the cello playing of Jackie Perez-Gratz (AMBER ASYLUM) that is heard throughout the album. It is truly amazing how one quiet instrument can turn an interesting arrangement into a heartfelt one. When combined with the low, chant-like vocals of Gossard and Sommese, the effect is almost spiritual. The analog recording of doom messiah Billy Anderson is exceptionally well done too. The instrument separation is fantastic, the clarity perfect, and the feeling captured spine tingling. It is easily one of the better doom recordings I've heard. I'll admit that when I heard the sentence, "it's 73 minutes, but only two tracks", my first thought was, "oh Christ!" But what a pleasant surprise "Works Will Come Undone" turned out to be. Assuming you're not looking for an adrenaline rush, you'll be shocked at how quickly song-length becomes meaningless. It is simply not an issue once the trip starts. Just keep in mind that the volume should be high and the lights low. Beyond that, "Works Will Come Undone" only requires that you allow yourself some time to get into the mood and then just go with the flow. Don't resist, just let the album take you on this 73-minute ride into the abyss. You may come out the other side a changed person. - Scott Alisoglu
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from Rebel Extravaganza
Asunder - Works Will Come Undone - Profound Lore Records 2006
Dear Mike Scheidt, Forlorn, dejected chords hang in the mist, John Gossard's vocals slightly reminiscent of latter-day Morgion, coloured by the subtle cello of Amber Asylum's Jackie Perez-Gratz, which lends an air of the orchestral to opening track "A Famine". Asunder never moves faster than a snail's pace, weaving between ancient oaks with the unhurried, but no less damaging gait of a brontosaurus. Sure, the beast moves slowly, but you still wouldn't want one to step on you, if you get my drift. Easily defined as being from the early Anathema / Thergothon school of doom, this San Francisco quintet are proud graduates nonetheless. Drummer and background vocalist Dino Sommese chimes in after around eight minutes, lending weight to the belief that Asunder is truly in no hurry to get anywhere, except maybe buried. Soon after, when the dual guitars meld with the cello, Perez-Gratz has her strings take the part of a third guitar, resulting in a resonance that few bands can lay claim to, doom or no. Returning producer Billy Anderson is the perfect fit for Asunder, letting the guitars hang free, raw, and hairy as the NoCal bud the band "might" have "a passing familiarity" with. The cello takes a more upfront role in the first minutes of album ender "The Rite Of Finality", Geoff Evans' guitar joining Gossard in acoustic reflection. After around seven minutes, once the vocals have disappeared, Asunder sets about forging a sonic tapestry which - though vast and rich in splendour - is tortured as all Hell. At the same time, a glimmer of the triumphant lurks within "The Rite Of Finality". Somewhere between the pinch harmonics, Salvador Raya's sublevel bass, and the crashing drums of Sommese, Asunder have shown that in the midst of death, there is rebirth. Suddenly, all is gone but the trembling throb of a faintly-beating heart, sometimes barely discernable through the drone, but always there. It is, to these ears, a musical picture of the haunting and haunted emotions brought forth by the band. Otherworldly chants fade in and out of the mix here and there during this section of the song, which carries on through the end of the album. Taking that sort of time on one theme (even within the genre of doom) can be disastrous, coming across as unwieldy in the hands of some. Asunder use their time wisely, though, morphing the music just enough to keep things interesting, fraught with the spirit of experimentation, yet still aware of the traditional element within their art. Isisian in their dedication to atmosphere, guttural chants return, as does the aforementioned throb before the end of the piece. No cello is present at this time, but the movement remains orchestral in its own despondent way. A captivating journey through realms of sadness, bereavement, and all things funereal, Asunder's Works Will Come Undone is certain to be heralded as a milestone in doom for those who have ears to hear. 2004 - 2005 Rebel Extravaganza - Rebelx.org
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from CMJ
ASUNDER: Works Will Come Undone
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from Paper Thin Walls ASUNDER- Works Will come Undone The doom metal aesthetic whittled down to 20 words or less: The tuning (how low can you go?), the pace (how slow can you go?) and the tone (how fucking miserable can you be?). And then, of course, there's the bottomless distortion, the distended/guttural vocal incantations and the infinite patience required to make it (without getting stoned to the Bejesus Belt) through the typically epic running times that the idiom demands. So it's no surprise that this Oaktown pentangle's second full-length (fourth release overall), Works Will Come Undone, consists of only two seemingly interminable tracks: Opener "A Famine" clocks in at 22:26, while closer "The Rite Of Finality" is an album unto itself at 50:21, the final 26 minutes of which is an ominous, sustained power drone punctuated by indecipherable munchkin chatter. (You're only getting about eight-and-a-half minutes worth of the former here, but that's a pretty accurate taste of what you're in for.) But Asunder -- with a lineup that includes vocalist/guitarist John Gossard of one-off black metal horde Weakling and cellist Jackie Gratz of neo-classical/post-rock experimentalists Amber Asylum -- don't just bring the doom, they bring the funeral doom, a style that slows the wheels of despondency to a near-glacial pace, plumbing the depths of temporal asphyxiation while (in Asunder's case anyway) incorporating a monastic-chant ambience designed to invoke some kind of ancient funeral rite. Or at least that's what it seems like: "A Famine" starts off like an Eye Of Every Storm-era Neurosis jam (or something from Steve Von Till's solo debut, As The Crow Flies) -- with an echo-drenched chant over a series of sparse guitar chords -- before the bottom drops out, the distortion kicks in and Gossard's vocals plummet towards the cookie jar as Gratz's cello provides the funeral to the rest of the band's doom. And so it goes, mighty and booming (or is it majestic and thundering?) for a glorious and continuous 22:26, while the disciples of misery mongers like Paradise Lost, Graves At Sea and Disembowelment load up on pain killers and prepare themselves, once again, for the long slow goodbye. - J. BENNETT
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from Subterra
Asunder - Works Will Come Undone Tessék elkönyvelni, hogy az Asundert már azelott felfedeztük, mielott arról tudomást szereztünk volna, hogy a Weaklingben és a The Gaultban egyaránt elévülhetetlen érdemeket szerzett John Gossard tagja a csapatnak, így mindenki biztos lehet abban, hogy nem csak beképzeljük magunknak a zenekar vitathatatlan kiválóságát. Egy olyan mufajban muködnek ugyanis, amiben elég nehéz kimondottan rosszat alkotni, tudniillik, a funeral doom keretei annyira végletesen szukek, hogy a sokak szerint szintén egysíkú black metal hozzá képest egy komplett zenei univerzum.
Lassú, mázsás riffeket egy kezdo gitáros is ki tud találni, ezeket a végtelenségig - de legalább a hallgatók turéshatárának végéig - ismételgetni nem teljesítmény, mégis, a hatás garantált, hiszen az unalom, a történések hiánya elszomorít, depresszióba taszít, tehát a produktum többnyire célba ér, hatással van a hallgatóra, ezzel pedig már papíron el is van intézve a dolog. Hanem az Asunder tényleg tud valamit, valószínuleg a kiváló Gossard úr is érezte ezt, és ezért szállt be röviddel a bemutatkozó A Clarion Call elott a csapatba. Az akkor mutatott stílus nem változott most sem, minden hivalkodás, és különösebb újítások nélkül hozzák ki magukból a korábbiakhoz természetesen hasonló, mégis másmilyen ízeket. Ugyanis érezhetoen kiforrottabb a zene, a dallamosság és a gonosz kiállások összehangoltabbak, bár elsore kevésbé hat hallgatóbarátnak az anyag, ezt támasztja alá az albumon található összesen két dal és a 73 perces hossz, pláne, hogy az utolsó 26 minutum mindössze halk gitárgerjedés, ami talán túlzás, de összességében nincs vele gond. Hogy aztán mégis jelentosen több elmerüléssel töltött órát jelent elodjeinél a Work Will Come Undone, az csak a késobbiekben válik nyilvánvalóvá, szinte észrevétlenül csap hegymagasságokba az amúgy is nagy ívu muzsika. Kérlelhetetlen türelemmel idozített váltások, ízlésesen megválasztott csúcspontok, ikerharmóniák és dallamok elegáns összefonódása figyelheto meg. Az énekhang öblös és elég érces is egyben, remekül passzol a vaskos alaphoz, a dörreno gitárrengeteghez és az öntöttvas dobverokkel (szókép!) vonszolt ritmushoz, ám szükség szerint változatos, kello idoben egyszeru és mély dallamokat is használ. Hangulatában egészségesen szomorú, komor, igazán emberi érzésekkel átitatott mu, semmi eroltetett bizarrkodás, sirám vagy jajveszékelés, nem kell megháborodni a feldolgozás során, könnyen társítható hétköznapjaink lassan maró emócióihoz, be nem teljesedett vágyakhoz, az oszi paletta matt színeihez. rtp & a' ördög 9.5 / 9
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from metalreviews.com
ASUNDER - Works Will Come Undone Funeral doom / Ambient Drone
2 songs (72'47") I am blaming it all on My Dying Bride. A Line of Deathless Kings did it again. Once I hear an album by these Brits I am going on a non-stop doom binge. Anything that has the name doom attached to it - stoner, funeral, gothic, dark - as long as the music feels sad, my soul is yearning for it. Such state can last for weeks on end. San Francisco underground notables Asunder caught me in the right state of mind. Not that I ever have particular difficulty listening to the long doom tracks, but, still, you must feel pretty special to go for a 22 min sojourn first, only to be followed by another 50 min slab of heavy despair. A Famine has me completely wrapped around Asunder's collective finger. Starting from afar, tuning the orchestral pit alongside woofing amps, Asunder unveil an awesome display of sheer grief and funeral doom. This is the music where you will either want to off yourself in the end, or come out completely cleansed and reborn. Full with crushing minor descending lines, A Famine goes with lumbering rhythmic steadiness, their ebb and flow positioned somewhere between the heart barely beating and the completely flat monitor line. When you think A Famine is over, it is lifted out of the doldrums by Dino Sommese's drumming which incredibly reaches into a double bass territory to allow the composition to say its final goodbye. Billy Anderson's (Neurosis, High on Fire) analog recording is very warm and clear. One of the unique Asunder touches is Jackie Perez-Gratz playing cello on this recording. Adding both melody and tenderness, these cello lines sometimes sound like an oboe or clarinet. Often they run against moaning guitar leads which can veer off melody and even appear a bit out of tune. Asunder vocals are not bottom of the barrel guttural scrapes, and that fits well with the rest of the fold. Monumental Rite of Finality presents another face of the band. At first, the same serene waves of warmth come over you with the cello leading the way. Asunder and How Like a Winter one more time show that a classical string instrument, if used properly, can be a powerful tool in the hands of a doom band. The warm waves, however, run into a wavebreaker, in the form of a crushing slowdown, guitar leads bordering on dissonance and overall horror atmosphere. Compared to A Famine, Rite of Finality is a much darker affair on the whole. Then, somewhere midway through the song, Asunder does a 180 degree turnaround changing from funeral doom to an ambient drone. Hollow eerie silence lasts way too long with the amps coming back to life in a pulsating chug only towards the very end, subliminal shamanic whispers in the background. This is way too SunnO))) for me, way too elitist and somehow completely canceling the despair feeling of the first 40 - 45 min. Perhaps, there is an explanation where after being squashed the band allows the listener to drift out for 20 - 25 min. I simply did not mind to wallow in my own misery a little more. Strong effort, it will be interesting to see if other doom fans, more knowledgeable than yours truly, will also have a split opinion of the dichotomy presented on Works Will Come Undone. Whatever their opinion, I can completely recommend the excellent funeral doom part of the album. Just keep those razor blades, nooses and other self-maiming objects away. Killing Songs : A Famine Alex 77 / 100
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from digitalmetal.com Doom album of '06? Asunder ain't exactly reinventing the steel, here, but God Hell, is this some good stuff. Taking the old-school funeral approach of Thergothon and Skepticism and injecting just enough melody to make it stick - without becoming the gothic mope-crawl of Shape of Despair or Saturnus (who I likewise dig, so save your breath) is. . . . a really long sentence. It's also dead goddamn on. I was a little thrown at first by the warmth of the engineering/mix; most funeral doom acts have a calculated, cold sterility that is part of the charm. But the more I listened, the more it made sense. This is pure analog, therefore, purely human. This is not some robot boo-hoo-ishness, these are some real dudes in a real room, going full-on suicidal, like Jim Jones guest speaking at Spahn Ranch around a mammoth evidentiary bonfire. And at 72 minutes (only two songs) you'll have plenty of time to let it sink in. And it will sink in. Doom album of '06. Book it. By Jeff Lamb
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