AUTUMN LEAVES — Hope Springs Eternal (review)

AUTUMN LEAVES — Hope Springs Eternal album cover Demo · 1995 · Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Hope Springs Eternal" is the first demo by Danish death metal act Autumn Leaves. The demo was independently releasedon cassette tape in 1995 and ended up selling more than 1000 copies. Autumn Leaves were active from 1993 to 2001 and released this demo and two full-length studio albums in that period. When the band split-up, some of the members went on to form Scavenger, which later changed their name to The Arcane Order.

Autumn Leaves are mostly known as a melodic death metal act, but on "Hope Springs Eternal" they play a slightly more raw death metal style although it´s still fairly melodic. While Autumn Leaves don´t exactly sound like (early) Necrophobic, I will still make the reference, because of the aggressive growling vocals and raw yet melodic way of playing death metal. Autumn Leaves are not as demonic and old school sounding as Necrophobic though and the music on "Hope Springs Eternal" features some groove laden parts, that would never have found their way into the Swede´s material.

"Hope Springs Eternal" features 4 tracks and a full playing time of 17:55 minutes. The first three tracks on the demo are mid- to fast paced melodic tinged death metal tracks, but on the closing track "Weakening Trips" the band introduce a melodic doom/death sound that wasn´t necessarily in the cards after listening to the opening trio of tracks. It´s still the sound of the same band playing though and it´s pretty great for the variation that Autumn Leaves are also able to pull off playing that style in the context of their musical soundscape.

The material are generally of a high quality and it´s certainly not obvious that this is a debut demo. The same can be said about the sound production, which is very close to sounding like a professional studio production. Raw and powerful sounding, yet clear enough to hear every instrument and vocal track in the mix. The musicanship is also on a high level, and all in all "Hope Springs Eternal" is a very convincing first release by Autumn Leaves. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Antibeauty Hardcore Punk
SNOWING IN PERU
Buy this album from MMA partners
Mana Earth Hardcore Punk
SNOWING IN PERU
Buy this album from MMA partners
Intimate Isolation Hardcore Punk
GOOD FALL
Buy this album from MMA partners
Dark Future Sludge Metal
PAIN CHEMISTRY
Buy this album from MMA partners
Violent Delights Hardcore Punk
GALLEONS
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Galleons - Electric Emotions
GALLEONS
Bosh66· 17 hours ago
Galleons - Elsewhere (Official Lyric Video)
GALLEONS
Bosh66· 17 hours ago
Galleons - Neon Dreams (Official Lyric Video)
GALLEONS
Bosh66· 17 hours ago
Galleons - I Travel East As Fievel Goes West Pt. 1 - Official Lyric Video
GALLEONS
Bosh66· 17 hours ago
FREEHOWLING - SCARS FT. AARON MATTS (TEN56.) [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]
FREEHOWLING
Bosh66· 18 hours ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed