It may seem like the classic discovery of hot water, but it is always useful to point out how the status acquired by a label derives essentially from the ratio between the quality and quantity of its releases. There are, indeed, those who bet everything or almost everything on the second aspect, thus risking to lose credibility and indirectly invalidating even very good releases; This is certainly not the case with Prophecy Productions (and its affiliates Lupus Lounge and Auerbach), which in a relatively short period of time such as the last two years has released a number of masterpieces (Dordeduh, Vali, Falkenbach), a large number of great albums (including Alcest, Antimatter, The Vision Bleak, Secrets Of The Moon, Empyrium) and a series of further releases under the banner of stylistic diversification, ranging from black metal to neofolk. All this panegyric towards the German label serves to introduce another little gem that has just been released under that label, namely the second full-length by the Canadians Finnr’s Cane, A Portrait Painted By The Sun. The North American trio offers a fascinating mix of black, post-metal, and a pinch of folk and ambient sounds that, to put it bluntly, is rather close to Agalloch, although compared to John Haughm’s phenomenal band, the black component appears decidedly more nuanced. The opening track, This Old Oak, is a perfect manifesto of Finnr’s Cane‘s songwriting, with its acoustic incipit that gradually grows stronger until it reaches its climax at the end, when a mournful guitar melody makes its way through the dark substrate created by the other instruments, leading the listener to an enchanting and unexpected closure. The album lives, for its forty minutes, on similar sensations, with tracks that often start off softly and then swell like a cloud before the storm, reaching pathos in the final part; the three musicians untangle themselves with great sensitivity among sounds that are certainly not usable at first listening. A Portrait Painted By The Sun is, in fact, a work destined to grow exponentially with each passage through the player, and the magic of splendid tracks such as the aforementioned opener, Time Is A Face In The Sky and Tao will repay with interest for the effort put in to ideally immerse oneself in the dark forests of Ontario. For those who appreciate Alcest, Agalloch and Wolves In The Throne Room.

2013 – Prophecy Productions