Sculptured take a journey straight into our heart indicating that love can be cold and very painful. This tragic exploration is presented in an avant-garde progressive death metal fashion; Majestic atmospheres, breathtakin... more »g chants, highly original and expressive vocals, colorful textures and a euphoria of lavish melodies delivered by an array of instruments including keyboards, piano and trumpets that captivate with their colorful soundscapes.Love has two sides and get ready to see its darker one. From the heart-broken Sculptured comes one of the best and most magnificent US debuts in a long time. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY: Sculptured was fashioned in the Summer of 1996 by Don Anderson, with an inspiration to create interesting and challenging music, Don immediately began writing material for what would become the three song demo, "Fulfillment In Tragedy". A drummer was called upon; John Schlegel, which Don had known for years. The disciplined duo spent weeks crafting the songs, "Lit By The Light Of Morning", "Words of Silent Fowler" and "Our Illuminated Tomb" for recording during the last, cold Winter months of the year. Two studio musicians were called upon to contribute their genius. Brian Yager complemented the music with his lush clean vocals, and trumpet jazz musician Burke Harris laid down some fine solos. Once the demo was released it gained momentous positive feedback from magazines around the world which lead to a 2 CD deal with Mad Lion Records from Poland. The debut CD would contain the same three songs from the demo as well as four new ones including the mysterious demo title song "Fulfillment In Tragedy". The debut CD, "The Spear of the Lily is Aureoled" is now available. Prior to the CD release Mad Lion secured an American/Japan licensing deal with The End Records. After the recording of the CD, new members had been recruited to allow Sculptured be a live act. Nick Wusz joined in on guitar and Jason Walton of Sussurus Inanis and Nothing fame has offered his bass work. Sculptured has declared war on the ironies of love. Through rich, melodic music and lyrics detailing the catastrophic way in which humans treat each other through the horrid burden of romance, Sculptured will soon see the light of morning and be rest assured that true love is but a sharp and quick arrow away...« less
Sculptured take a journey straight into our heart indicating that love can be cold and very painful. This tragic exploration is presented in an avant-garde progressive death metal fashion; Majestic atmospheres, breathtaking chants, highly original and expressive vocals, colorful textures and a euphoria of lavish melodies delivered by an array of instruments including keyboards, piano and trumpets that captivate with their colorful soundscapes.Love has two sides and get ready to see its darker one. From the heart-broken Sculptured comes one of the best and most magnificent US debuts in a long time. ARTIST BIOGRAPHY: Sculptured was fashioned in the Summer of 1996 by Don Anderson, with an inspiration to create interesting and challenging music, Don immediately began writing material for what would become the three song demo, "Fulfillment In Tragedy". A drummer was called upon; John Schlegel, which Don had known for years. The disciplined duo spent weeks crafting the songs, "Lit By The Light Of Morning", "Words of Silent Fowler" and "Our Illuminated Tomb" for recording during the last, cold Winter months of the year. Two studio musicians were called upon to contribute their genius. Brian Yager complemented the music with his lush clean vocals, and trumpet jazz musician Burke Harris laid down some fine solos. Once the demo was released it gained momentous positive feedback from magazines around the world which lead to a 2 CD deal with Mad Lion Records from Poland. The debut CD would contain the same three songs from the demo as well as four new ones including the mysterious demo title song "Fulfillment In Tragedy". The debut CD, "The Spear of the Lily is Aureoled" is now available. Prior to the CD release Mad Lion secured an American/Japan licensing deal with The End Records. After the recording of the CD, new members had been recruited to allow Sculptured be a live act. Nick Wusz joined in on guitar and Jason Walton of Sussurus Inanis and Nothing fame has offered his bass work. Sculptured has declared war on the ironies of love. Through rich, melodic music and lyrics detailing the catastrophic way in which humans treat each other through the horrid burden of romance, Sculptured will soon see the light of morning and be rest assured that true love is but a sharp and quick arrow away...
CD Reviews
Decent album for an Agalloch fan.
IcemanJ | Ohio, USA | 03/12/2005
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Like many, I bought this because Agalloch is one of my favorite bands and I wanted to see what their "side project" sounded like. This isn't really a side project though; it was started by Don Anderson before Agalloch was formed. I ended up not too impressed by this album, but not a total waste of money. I like the addition of bronze instruments in some cases, but there isn't enough. The production is quite raw but that's not a bad thing.
"Together With the Seasons" starts out with some nice Agalloch-like guitar work, throughout most of the song, mostly heavy, and some folk-like stuff later on. Don Anderson's growling vocals are somewhat mediocre, but this song is probably one of the best. "Almond Beauty" has some clean vocals, which aren't that great either, but the saxophone really adds to this song and I like it. "Lit by the light of morning" is fast-paced, has some great riffs and is one of the heavier songs. It has some keyboards mixed in too. "Fashioned by Blood and Tears" sounds a little redundant, the melody kind of sounds like Almond Beauty. But then near the end it breaks down into a nice dark piano solo. With "Fulfillment in tragedy for cello & flute" I have no idea what they were thinking, it sounds like they were drunk and played those instruments for one minute while accidentally recording it and somehow got on the album. "Her Silence" starts off with a nice acoustic melody, then is kind of boring, until it breaks down into a dark piano melody somewhere in the middle, later adding keyboard and then dusky, mysterious saxophone, which reminds me of ulver's Perdition City a little, then more piano. Probably the best instrumental portion of the album. The last song has a lot of samples form films and ambient sections.
So all in all, if you are an Agalloch fan and are curious, give it a shot, but don't expect much. I'm sure many people enjoy it more than me, so you never know."
Underrated gem
Jose Angeles | Chazzwuzzles USA | 12/07/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Fine velvety smooth avant-garde death metal I don't see many people rave about that often. This may sound weird in a review for a metal album, but the singing reminds me of Keith Sweat the R&B singer. And we all know how those R&B singers are very vocal. The growls are well executed, it's understandable, possessed, and controlled. The music is similar to early Opeth but a bit more eclectic. Trumpets, toiling with instruments, and well-selected video clips are used which I don't recall Opeth ever doing. Sculptured sounds actually more like Agalloch, minus the cold brim atmosphere. There is some folk-ish guitar plucking, which any appreciator of Agalloch will love. It's more art rock meets death metal than the signature Agalloch sound of folk rock meets gothic metal. Sculptured is a metal band for the guy that wants to hear the unconventional artsy side of death metal paired with graceful moody melodies. Basically it's like avant-garde early melodic death (not melodic death as in At-The Gates clone) that incorporates easy listening, romantic piano playing, or jazzy blues rock wherever it fits in a song. It's a perfect album to impress people with the misconception that all death metal is satanic brutal music. I can't stand people like that, seriously. The lyrics are impressive too, a lot of clever metaphors that represent the dark disastrous side of romance. The themes they try give matches the feeling of the music perfectly."
Not earthshattering, but really good
Strobe Lights And Blown Speakers | Louisville | 01/08/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Really nice proggy, kinda slightly weird, and diverse melodeath from member(s) of Agalloch. It brings to mind Dark Tranquillity (especially the early stuff), Opeth, Agalloch, and Farmakon. They have a lot of really nice ideas, and there are some really cool solos and guitar parts. They also use some quite diverse instrumentation, especially for the genre - saxophone, flute and cello (during the 1-minute track 5 interlude), keyboard, and sound samples, as well as acoustic guitar.
Check them out, fans of melodeath."
Old School Intrigue
B. Peever | MI USA | 01/20/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The guitar melodies are addicting. Their tone reminding me of those older Swedish death metal albums (In Flames, Dark Tranquility, Opeth, etc.). Very fluid fun album. My favorite tracks have to be the epic ever shifting Together With The Seasons and the rest of the album. It is really all over the place. The vocals bouncing back and forth between harsh growls and singing that while difficult to get into at first has grown on me and I couldn't picture the album with out it. There are horns and pianos (The end of Fashioned By Blood & Tears is a very moving piano section) and tons of different things on this album even some crazy movie quotes about getting married (it starts at about two thirds of the way into Almond Beauty). It's a real unique listen that requires bold ears and an adventurous idea of what musical listening is about."
A must-have for any Agalloch fan
mysanthropyk_overlord | USA | 08/14/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Sculptured is the main project of musician extraordinaire Don Anderson, who may be best known for his work as one of the two guitarists in the genius Agalloch. Sculptured incorporates a little bit of Swedish-style melodic death metal, but mixes it with some jazz, some prog, and some other elements. Nothing that any of the members of Agalloch have worked with fits into just one category, and while Sculptured may be the easiest to describe (except maybe Nothing, which is simply dark ambient noise), this band certainly doesn't play by any 'rules.' Mr. Anderson has always said that his music is an art, and he plays it accordingly. This album gives Anderson a chance to show his strengths not only as a guitarist, but also as a keyboardist, bassist, and vocalist. He has a very nice growl, similar to Anders Friden of In Flames, and not the hollow black voice that John Haughm of Agalloch uses. Speaking of Haughm, he does some backing vocals on the first song. There are some trumpet pieces too, which may seem sappy and corny, until you hear it. There are also some great, prog-type clean vocals. Anderson shows that he really is a great guitarist who can play just about anything. He is also a capable composer. So in conclusion, any fan of Agalloch or melodic death metal needs to pick up a copy of this album today. I also recommend the band's newer offering "Apollo Ends," and "Nondescript" by Nothing (J. William W.'s ambient project, featuring John Haughm and Michelle Loose). By the way, to all those silly pinheads who said Agalloch and Opeth sound even remotely alike... listen to this album, and you might actually be able to pick out some Opeth influence, along with the My Dying Bride nods."
Track Listings (7) - Disc #1