TAV – The Ashen Trail

vote
7.5

• Bands:
  TAB
• Duration: 00:43:11
• Available from: 11/29/2024
• Label:

• Van Records

A strange, sly and ghostly creature, that of Tav. The German group made its long-distance debut four years ago with the album of the same name, demonstrating a special sensitivity for everything that causes darkness, in its atmospheric, impalpable, light but profound format. Open structures, between post-rock/metal, doom, progressive, soundtrack and gothic/darkwave inflections. A difficult album to frame, neither simple nor immediate, but smooth and magnetic in its own way, shadowy without being oppressive, powerful and emphatic and full of a magical, supernatural aura, which is not uncommon to associate with publications branded Vàn Records, their home record company.
In 2024, Tav insist on pursuing a discourse far from easy comparisons, tightening the ranks further for an approach more similar to a true song form, however dilated and not exactly synthetic. If in “Tav” the idea was to build broad-minded, exploratory world-songs, within which to weave sound experimentation, refinement and a melodic idea that is still solid and non-dispersive, in “The Ashen Trail” it is It is precisely around melodies that are easier to understand that the entire narrative develops. And it is in the taste of the story, in a desire to take us into their favorite musical and mental dimension, prone to meditative states, cultured and philosophical reflections, that we find the underlying theme of the album in its entirety.
The atmospheric system, the effects surrounding the more classically metal instrumentation, also on this occasion refer to a nocturnal world, in some respects almost enchanted, suspended in time; the spaces are less dilated, there is less abstraction, the guitars, the voice and the rhythms have a more decisive and ringing tone. As if, despite keeping themselves a little distant from genres and easy comparisons, Tav had moved towards a more metal front, reporting unsuspected similarities. In fact, the minstrel vocal lines and the alternation of emptiness and fullness that their music brings with it, between doom brushstrokes, acoustic breaks and melancholic soundscapes, even brings us back to a certain progressive metal of the second half of the 80s/early 90s. A kind of fusion between doom/post-rock and the elaborate plots of early Fates Warning and Psychotic Waltz.
The perpetually saddened tone, the calm and calmness characterizing each track bring the mysterious Germans closer to the work of The Cure, and it is not difficult to find parallels between “Songs Of A Lost World” and the elegant, gentle notes of “The Illusory Circle ”. Despite the greater compactness of the whole which we spoke about at the beginning, the songs continue to have a free structure and in moderate crescendo, with some acceleration and more enthralling verses, but a general propensity to swell and become increasingly powerful and full of pathos with minutes pass.
As evidence of the heterogeneous background of the band, there are also moments close to a seventies hard rock/psychedelic feel, as in the catchier “A Pilgrim's Dream Of Death”, which highlights the desire to be a little more gritty and less controlled compared to the debut. Good even when you settle into an ephebic minimalism, in a “Shards” similar to the most elaborate crooning and supported almost entirely by a lively arpeggiated for the entire first half.
At times one would ask the band for more impetus and some more impetuous sections, more typically metal moments which in fact have been introduced in a more massive way, if we think about the contents of “Tav”: considering that the group seems to be at ease even in a more gritty and direct dimension, it wouldn't be bad to be able to enjoy it further.
Having said then that the calm and moderate pace remains an important peculiarity, and on some occasions a small limitation, we welcome this second long-distance test of the Tavs with pleasure. Having also had the opportunity to 'taste' them live in the summer, in one of the their rare performances, we think they have a positive future ahead of them. As long as the night from which they come doesn't swallow them up again…