When you're trying to create something new and different, maybe you can commit some mistakes. But this is always for a good and great cause. To create something in Metal for your own is to become particular, even in styles that already exist. To create, the first thing you must have is personality, something that Dolly clones can't stand. And the North American duo AMIDST THE WITHERING is really trying to be different, and creating excellent music on "The Dying of Light", their second album.

What they are doing: mixing Doom/Death Metal with some Black Metal influences and something more. Yes, they have guts to dare to mix the morbid and harsh influences with darkened and elegant musical embodiment. Yes, the guttural grunts, clean voices (both agonizing and in a trend seeming like BORKNAGAR sometimes) and shrieking screams are all together, but in their due places; the guitars are very good on morbid riffs, knowing when be aggressive or more melodic, the rhythmic session is perfect on technique and weight, and the keyboards are doing very good orchestrations. This band has an evident personality that can be heard on their music.

The sound quality is very good, a bit harsher than the needed, but it's good as it's presented here: heavy and clean in both ways.

One good feature is that AMIDST THE WITHERING plays songs that last between 5 and 7 minutes, never turning them something boring to our ears. And this is a strange feature for a band in a style that commonly uses very long songs.

The album is leveled homogeneously, but we can point as the best tracks "Auri Sacra Flame" (a slow paced song, but with very good technique on drums, and good use of vocals on guttural voices and shrieked ones, with some perfect atmospheric moments), "The Withering" (with very good changes of voices, along with some perfect riffs), the bitter "Autumnal Lament" (worked perfectly and with some wonderful keyboards), and the aggressive and melodic "A Love Benighted".

It's an honest work, with some great mixed musical influences, so you'll enjoy it to the point of "The Dying of Light" becomes an addiction.<