Menu
195 metal CDs
  • Home
  • About
  • Full list of CDs
  • Genres
  • Scores
195 metal CDs

Traces—Reflections of a Forlorn Sun EP (2009)

Posted on Monday 19 September 2016Thursday 4 July 2019
Traces—Reflections of a Forlorn Sun (2009)
Traces—Reflections of a Forlorn Sun (2009)

Details

Mixed and mastered by Josh Middleton at Shredroom Studios and James Scrivener at Theale Studios. Released on Siege of Amida Records.

Encyclopedia Metallum

Band

  • Phil Wilson—Vocals
  • Dave James—Guitars (lead)
  • Dan—Bass
  • James Scrivener—Keyboards
  • Sam Greenland—Drums

Tracks

  1. To engulf all creed
  2. In the wake of what has perished
  3. Wreathed in flame
  4. The last cycle of light (instrumental)
  5. Reflections of a forlorn sun

Review

Despite enjoying a fair amount of classical music and, well actual symphonies, it came as a bit of a surprise to discover a few years back that I’m not overly keen on symphonic black metal. Black metal: yes, mostly. Symphonic just gets a bit pretentiously over-dramatic for my liking.

But this is really not bad, from homegrown UK metallers Traces, who later changed their name to Saturnian before splitting in 2014.

The EP is quite progressive in places and stops and starts with James Scrivener’s symphonic keyboards weaving silk-like aural tapestries between the blast-beats and surgically-precise guitars. Track 3, “Wreathed in flame”, is probably my favourite track but then it’s probably also the closest to a fairly pure black metal track on the disc.

“The last cycle of light” (track 4) is a very short and gentle piece that acts as a prelude to the title track “Reflections of a forlorn sun”. The vocals are gutteral and bounce from riff to riff until it morphs into a rather sweet melodic passage with something akin to recitative, lyrics spoken in time to the music.

Conclusion

As Traces’ only offering this is a pretty strong one, and that they were a British band is absolutely to be celebrated. I liked the vocals, I liked the guitars and drums, I really liked many of the black metal elements… but no matter how good they may have been, they still didn’t win me over to the symphonic wing of black metal. Sorry, guys!

Review score: 75%

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Genres

  • About the project (4)
  • Heavy metal (214)
    • Alternative (11)
    • Ambient (3)
    • Avant-garde (8)
    • Black (38)
    • Crossover (2)
    • Death (50)
    • Doom (18)
    • Drone (5)
    • Experimental (14)
    • Folk (7)
    • Gothic (7)
    • Grindcore (15)
    • Groove (9)
    • Industrial (11)
    • Instrumental (5)
    • Metalcore (12)
    • Power metal (5)
    • Progressive (32)
    • Ragga (2)
    • Sludge (15)
    • Speed metal (2)
    • Thrash (26)
  • Punk (15)
  • Rock (40)
    • Blues (2)
    • Depressive (1)
    • Electronic (1)
    • Grunge (1)
    • Hardcore (15)
    • Indie (1)
    • Post-Hardcore (1)
    • Psychedelic Rock (1)
    • Stoner (3)
  • Spoken word (1)

Search

Recent Posts

  • Deified—Anthrobscene EP (2020)
  • Buckshot Facelift—Ulcer Island (2018)
  • BillyBio—Feed the Fire (2018)
  • Krysthla—Worldwide Negative (2019)
  • Flotsam and Jetsam—The End of Chaos (2019)
  • Latitudes—Part Island (2019)
  • Cerberon—Cerberon EP (2018)

Most common tags

60% 65% 70% 75% 80% 85% 90% 95% 98% 100% 2007 2008 black black metal death Death metal doom England experimental Finland grindcore hardcore industrial Italy London melodic death metal metal metalcore music New York Norway NY prog progressive progressive metal punk review rock sludge Sweden thrash thrash metal UK US USA

Music genres

About the project Alternative Ambient Avant-garde Black Blues Crossover Death Depressive Doom Drone Electronic Experimental Folk Gothic Grindcore Groove Grunge Hardcore Heavy metal Indie Industrial Instrumental Metalcore Post-Hardcore Power metal Progressive Psychedelic Rock Punk Ragga Rock Sludge Speed metal Spoken word Stoner Thrash
Copyright © 2019 Gareth J M Saunders