The Americans Where She Wept, at their third album, propose a gothic doom on the noble wake of My Dying Bride. Undoubtedly they were not the first, nor will they be the last, to be inspired by the Albionic masters in composing their music, in this case, however, the band from Buffalo goes well beyond a simple reference; everything is probably amplified by the clean voice of vocalist Tom, who appears in too many moments a faded copy of Aaron Stainthorpe (much better instead when he tries his hand at growl). Despite these premises, Marrow is a disc of good level even in its lack of originality, but it’s not a coincidence if the best moments coincide with the songs in which ours are able to partially free themselves from the influence of My Dying Bride, where is left ample space to an atmospheric nature symphonic able to make more peculiar sound. They Are Afraid and, above all, the long You Are All I Want, are in fact two tracks that highlight compositional skills far from negligible and that, in my opinion, should be a stylistic option on which to beat with greater conviction. Probably the derivativeness of the proposal would have been seen with more benevolence if it had come from a band at its first discographic steps, but Where She Wept were formed at the beginning of the century and from a band with an already considerable seniority of service it is legitimate to expect something more personal, if not original, while taking into account all the extenuating circumstances that are inherent in a genre by its nature poorly suited to particular digressions.

2014 – Independent