Are they prog metal or are they goth metal? Certainly a fitting question for the Dutch group Autumn and their 2009 offering,
Altitude. Their fourth album overall marks the arrival of a new singer, Marjan Welman (who replaces longtime frontwoman Nienke de Jong), but fans shouldn't worry, as Autumn still manage to embrace elements of both aforementioned metallic subgenres. And while there is quite a bit of crunchy metal heard throughout the release (especially "Skydancer"), there is also quite a lot of melody throughout -- especially detected in Welman's vocals -- as heard on such tracks as "Liquid Under Film Noir." If you're looking for smartly penned melodic metal (which manages to sound unlike most of the other modern-day metal bands mining similar sonic terrain), Autumn's
Altitude would be a wise purchase. ~ Greg Prato