{"id":78961,"date":"2025-09-22T14:35:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T14:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/78961\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T14:35:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T14:35:09","slug":"autumn-tears-crown-of-the-clairvoyant-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/78961\/","title":{"rendered":"Autumn Tears – Crown of the Clairvoyant Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"One of the interesting things about writing for a heavy metal blog is the quantity\u2014and quality\u2014of non-metal recommendations that show up. I\u2019ve already gone out of my way to review many a (dark\/neo) folk album that\u2019s wandered through; the conscious decision to send these our way suggests there is something here for the metal fan. But an almost fully neo-classical album is, I think, a new one, and its mere presence was enough to intrigue me. Autumn Tears<\/strong> is an international act headed by lyricist, pianist, and composer Ted Tringo that has historically ventured through gothix, classical, and darkwave waters. Since 1996, the project has ventured through many forms, but Crown of the Clairvoyant promises something new for the Tringo\u2019s tenth full-length: an ambitious, fully neoclassical journey featuring no fewer than forty-three musicians. Metal or no metal, how do you pass that up?<\/p>\n

I mean, if you\u2019re a heavy metal fan who likes heavy metal, I suppose you might pass it up\u2014though Crown of the Clairvoyant shares a grandiose and somewhat mournful theme with gothic and symphonic metal, Autumn Tears<\/strong> are far from a heavy group. The aforementioned forty-three musicians include a fairly light strings section, a well-stacked horns group, some woodwinds, and a few standard miscellaneous instruments\u2014harp, oud, and piano, for example\u2014but nearly half of the listed musicians in Crown of the Clairvoyant\u2019s extensive credits are singers, most of them part of the Autumn Tears<\/strong> choir. Indeed, choral vocals are dominant throughout Crown of the Clairvoyant, a nice counterbalance to the lead singing, which is typically female soprano. This all gives Crown of the Clairvoyant a strongly organic feel; its instrumentation feels like a deliberate step away from darkwave\u2014though the influence is still felt\u2014and towards something altogether fresher, cleaner, and lighter.<\/p>\n

Crown of the Clairvoyant by Autumn Tears<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Unlike metal-inspired orchestral projects like Blind Guardian\u2019s Twilight Orchestra<\/strong>, Autumn Tears<\/strong> do not reach for mighty crescendos; instead, they write songs that are more like movements, guiding the listener through moments that come about organically. \u201cThe Knell of my Birth-Hymn\u201d opens with a flurry of cello before rising and swelling to joyful heights, choirs and singers layering atop each other, swept along by a beautiful string performance. There is no particular structure for the verses, nor chorus, nor interlude; the song simply goes where it needs to, and this is a recurring idea throughout Crown of the Clairvoyant. Not that there\u2019s no repetition or structure; most songs work within a particular theme. \u201cMartyrdom \u2013 Catharsis (Where Gods Go to Die)\u201d is a grandiose song dominated by the increasingly powerful verses between its refrain (not to mention a powerful organ performance). Similarly, \u201cThe Light That Shapes Us\u201d allows the horns and woodwinds to act in tandem with the choirs to create a \u201cchorus,\u201d even as the lead vocals follow new and interesting paths. Over a mere thirty-eight minutes, Autumn Tears<\/strong> cover a lot of ground by allowing each song to walk its own general path.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s a drawback to Crown of the Clairvoyant, it\u2019s the other side of that coin: Crown of the Clairvoyant covers a lot of ground across a lot of songs that are written very organically. This means that some tracks are prone to wandering, and some feel like they just pass by, with no idea strong enough to make an impression. \u201cAncestral Premonition\u201d is one such song, with many, many extended passages and vocal arrangements that linger too long on the same idea. Francesca Nicoli\u2019s (Ataraxia<\/strong>) dramatic guest vocals add much to the song thematically, but her immediate, intense approach feels mismatched to the quiet wandering instrumentation. \u201cLunar Coronation\u201d is the longest song at six minutes, but it feels like it never quite decides on a clear theme or idea. While the entirety of Crown of the Clairvoyant is intricate, clever, and, at minimum, pretty, its memorability feels a bit hit-or-miss as a result.<\/p>\n

The first time I listened to Crown of the Clairvoyant, I was on an airplane over the Atlantic Ocean, half-awake and seated between two infants who evidently liked flying even less than me. This is not the right way to experience it. You can immerse yourself in Autumn Tears<\/strong>, even if you do prefer your music heavier. Some moments are stronger than others\u2014but the whole is beautiful, and I would recommend trying Crown of the Clairvoyant and seeing how it feels. I\u2019m not in love, but I am absolutely impressed.<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> 3.0\/5.0
DR:<\/strong> 8 | Format Reviewed:<\/strong> 320 kb\/s mp3
Label:<\/strong> The Circle Music<\/a>
Websites:<\/strong> autumntears.bandcamp.com<\/a> | facebook.com\/TheTrueAutumnTears<\/a>
Releases Worldwide:<\/strong> September 22nd, 2025<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the interesting things about writing for a heavy metal blog is the quantity\u2014and quality\u2014of non-metal recommendations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[1135,1136,53172,53173,53174,53175,53176,18,117,19,53177,17,337,53178,53179,1142,1143,31249,53180],"class_list":{"0":"post-78961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-1135","9":"tag-3-0","10":"tag-ataraxia","11":"tag-autumn-tears","12":"tag-blind-guardian-twilight-orchestra","13":"tag-crown-of-the-clairvoyant","14":"tag-darkwave","15":"tag-eire","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-international-metal","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-music","21":"tag-neoclassical","22":"tag-nightwish","23":"tag-review","24":"tag-reviews","25":"tag-sep25","26":"tag-the-circle-music"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}