{"id":14295,"date":"2015-01-21T01:00:39","date_gmt":"2015-01-21T06:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=14295"},"modified":"2022-01-06T19:51:24","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T00:51:24","slug":"album-review-while-heaven-wept-suspended-at-aphelion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=14295","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: While Heaven Wept &#8211; Suspended at Aphelion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>While Heaven Wept &#8211; Suspended at Aphelion<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date:<\/strong> November 18, 2014<br \/>\n<strong>Record Label<\/strong>: Nuclear Blast<\/p>\n<p>Suspended at Aphelion opens with an absolutely gorgeous classical guitar piece called \u201cIntrospectus\u201d which totally had my full attention. Just as I was getting settled into this piece, \u201cIcarus and I\/Ardor\u201d just came out of nowhere and totally slamming my face. Right out of the gates, the vocals of lead singer Rain Irving matched with gorgeous harmonies of keyboardist Michelle Schrotz gave me goosebumps while sending a chill up my spine. This song was the absolute highlight of the album and it really showcases the subtle yet raw perfection of Rain Irving and Michelle Schrotz\u2019s voices. I\u2019d love to hear these two do a duo album someday as the pairing of those voices just may be one of my favorites.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHeartburst\u201d is this dark, haunting ballad that reminds me of what something would sound like if Dennis De Young listened to progressive doom metal. I found this particular song to be good but it just did very little for me. The suite of \u201cThe Memory of Bleeding\/Souls in Permafrost\/Searching the Stars\u201d had all the potential to be an epic but it just seemed to lack the ability to hold my attention and really move me. The instrumental \u201cIndifference Turned Paralysis\u201d just kind of sounded like a prog metal Vegas intermission break. To me, that song was just a flexing of musical muscles that I found to be more self-indulgent than actually entertaining. Yeah, I get it guys. Y\u2019all can play your asses off but I want to hear songs. I want to hear melody and I want to hear something of substance as opposed to something that\u2019s just filling up space.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nxCeC3Mxqxw\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>For as big a deal that Suspended at Aphelion was made out to be, I just don\u2019t feel that this album lived up to the hype. Don\u2019t get me wrong. It doesn\u2019t suck. Matter of fact, the album is very much listenable but in all honesty I just feel like I didn\u2019t feel that connection. I almost felt like they were playing \u201cat\u201d me as opposed to or for me. I personally found \u201cFear of Infinity\u201d to be a truly great album that I felt encapsulated everything that I love about While Heaven Wept and I really felt a personal connection to that album. With Suspended at Aphelion, I felt like they were trying for something that they just weren\u2019t able to make happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While Heaven Wept &#8211; Suspended at Aphelion Release Date: November 18, 2014 Record Label: Nuclear Blast Suspended at Aphelion opens with an absolutely gorgeous classical guitar piece called \u201cIntrospectus\u201d which totally had my full attention. Just as I was getting settled into this piece, \u201cIcarus and I\/Ardor\u201d just came out of nowhere and totally slamming my face. Right out of the gates, the vocals of lead singer Rain Irving matched with gorgeous harmonies of keyboardist Michelle Schrotz gave me goosebumps [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,277],"tags":[805],"class_list":["post-14295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-music-news","tag-while-heaven-wept"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19741,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14295\/revisions\/19741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}