Quick! Name five bands from Maine!
It's harder than it sounds, and being the uninitiated falsie that I am, I've only recently found my first. During a trip to Montreal's only metal-oriented music store Profusion, I stumbled across a record adorned with a misty picture of a waterfall, and in minuscule print "FALLS OF RAUROS - THE LIGHT THAT DWELLS IN ROTTEN WOOD". As someone who's in the midst of an atmospheric black metal kick, this seemed to be the answer to my prayers. After being assured by the store owner that this was, indeed, an amazing record (thanks, Frank!), I anxiously ran home to give it a spin.
Oh. My. God.
From the first note of 'Earth's Timid Grace', Falls of Rauros deliver a stunningly primal attack on the senses. Where bands like Skagos and Gallowbraid have attempted to establish pure atmosphere, this Maine quartet have succeeded. Through masterful dichotomies of clean and distortion, melody and rythym, 'Awaiting the Fire or Flood that Awakens It' conjures up the misty, rain-soaked forests of Maine.
This is an absolutely amazing record that somehow passed me by in 2011. Since then, the band has released a split with Panopticon (whose newest record Kentucky is also noteworthy), but otherwise has kept quiet about a new record. I'm currently scouring the internet and record stores for Falls of Rauros' first record Hail Wind and Hewn Oak (it's currently right behind Weakling's Dead as Dreams in my priorities). DO NOT SLEEP ON THIS BAND.
Noteworthy tracks: 'Silence', 'Banished'.
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