Grimoire of Oak & Shadow
Released: 2024
What started as a quick follow up to 2017s ‘Ending Life Slowly’ soon became more of a deep therapy vessel for me to channel everything that was happening in my life. From raising my first kid, to losing my mother, life sort of chewed me up & spit me out more times than I can remember over the past few years. Instead of pushing through a production from start to finish, I was only able to work on this in bits & pieces. Months turned into years, & eventually the album came together, but not without evolving into something I had not originally intended.
Case in point, the final track ‘Sorrow & Sunlight’ started off as your standard sounding evil metal riff. Soon after, as cancer started to slowly suffocate the life out of my own mother, I used that song to express my experience. I reworked the entire piece to reflect my own depiction of what it was like to lose a parent at such an agonizingly slow pace. Anger, chaos, confusion, hope, peace, & eventual acceptance. It’s all there sonically, just as it was living through it.
Other aspects of life became amplified after that, & in turn were again reflected back into the album as a whole. Lyrics re-worked, solos re-recorded, keyboard arrangements re-arranged. Was it all necessary? Probably not, but it helped me get through some of the most difficult moments I’ve ever had to endure.
The title itself is quite indicative of how this journey has been for me. A Grimoire of Oak & Shadow represents a journal of strength & sadness. By no means an easy chapter in my life, but one that I felt compelled to capture in both my words & my music.
1. Flesh Into Fire
2. Let the Fear Find You
3. Betwixt Wind & Water
4. Late to Live, Early to Die
5. Prophet Fearing
6. Violation of Light
7. Follow the Embers
8. Seclusion Delusion
9. Faith in Cycles
10. Warmth of the Woods
11. Sorrow & Sunlight
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Ending Life Slowly
Released: 2017
At the crossroad between a hallowed holiday and the cusp of a dead cold winter is where you’ll find Autumns Eyes mastermind Daniel Mitchell. After many seasons of seclusion and intermittently hitting the studio, the recording process has finally wrapped up for the new album titled Ending Life Slowly. Mitchell had this to say regarding the new album…
“Living in New England has always made it easy to draw from the month of October for creative inspiration with life breathing its flaming colors into all the surrounding trees. Unfortunately, these themes can only be revisited every so often before it becomes repetitive. That’s why I reached into the month of November for inspiration. A time when Fall is still thriving, but where color has faded and the trees are bare as skeletons.
While a walk through the woods here in October can be a relaxing activity, doing the same in November carries an overwhelming sense of dread. You’re surrounded by death, and the trees no longer sway and breathe with the air. They’re cold, stiff, bare, and knock together like bones breaking in the sky.
This atmosphere is what fueled the writing process for Ending Life Slowly, with death and decay surrounding every element of each track. It’s a cliche topic to write about in heavy metal music, but my approach here was focused more on the immense weight death can hold over ones shoulders. To sit and truly contemplate what it means for all things to come to an end was a sobering experience to say the least.
I always look at music as sonic therapy, but this was the one time where music couldn’t offer any kind of solace. It just reminded me that life can either go by too fast, or it can end too slowly.”
Due out on October 31st, Ending Life Slowly serves as the first full length album from Autumns Eyes since the 2012 release of Please Deceive Me. Halloween and the death of Fall is a perfect time to be reminded that sometimes life ends far too slowly.
1. Death of October
2. Break the Skin
3. Your Last Day
4. Moments Into Memories
5. The Honest Liars
6. Couldn’t Hold On
7. Far Away From Fading
8. Internal Arson
9. Open Your Eyes, Not Your Wrists
10. Under the Skin of the Sun
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Broken Leaves and Haunted Streets
Released: 2013
A testament to progression over the years, Broken Leaves and Haunted Streets is a collection of instrumental songs originally written and recorded back during the bands inception in 1999. When these songs were first conceived, the technology and skills to deliver a quality recording were drowned by limitation. After over a decade of honing studio skills, the Halloween inspired songs are finally given a proper home so as to ensure longevity and strength within the world of heavy music.
1. Branches Across the Blinds
2. Accepting Madness
3. Lucid Empathy
4. Threat of My Extinction
5. Foreshadowed Misery
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Please Deceive Me
Released: 2012
Many artists go through a period of trials and tribulations which test their limits, a time when all of their most aggressive inner demons begin their ultimate torment. Please Deceive Me was without question the most difficult album for Autumns Eyes to complete, due to these dire circumstances. Fraught with an exhausting amount of personal injury related surgeries, the release of this album was constantly in peril. Thankfully it finally was able to see the light of day, and the dark of night, where fans both old and new were able to share their appreciation for the long awaited full length album.
1. Ichabod
2. Blood In the Woods
3. Anxiety Spiders
4. Please Deceive Me
5. So Close to Shadow
6. Pangea
7. Cobwebs and Crosses
8. Red Wine and Resin
9. Haunting Your Daughter
10. The Wooded Road
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All For None, None For All: A Tribute to Peter Steele
Released: 2011
The world of heavy music was choked into submission on April 14th, 2010, when headlines everywhere revealed that legendary goth icon Peter Steele had passed away. Upon hearing this news, Daniel Mitchell of Autumns Eyes took it upon himself to immediately pay tribute to his musical idol. With help from his friends at MetalUnderground.com, they amassed a small army of metal bands to evoke their own personal homage to Steele’s legacy by covering his music throughout Type O Negative and Carnivore. Unfortunately the cost to license these cover songs eventually ran thin, and the release was only available for a short run to the public.
1. Auvernia – I Don’t Wanna Be Me
2. Fairytale Abuse – Black No. 1
3. Stabbingback – Halloween in Heaven
4. Emancer – My Girlfriend’s Girlfriend
5. Dead Shape Figure – Dead Again
6. Enthrope – Wolf Moon
7. Dark Hound – Life is Killing Me
8. A Band of Orcs – Green Man
9. In.Verno – Everything Dies
10. Blind Greed – Christian Woman
11. Revilement – Sex and Violence
12. Autumns Eyes – Love You To Death
Unreleased
Released: 2009
Often times as a musician, there are songs which find themselves lost in the mix of things. Desperately seeking a home, only to find nothing but dead ends. Thats where this small collection of songs comes to pass. Not every musical memory needs to be released for public consumption, but there are some who find their way out by the grace of such amazing fans. After teasing these tracks online, fans finally had enough and demanded the songs be let loose.
1. Bleeding Passage
2. From Within
3. Sogni D’oro
Surrender the Fire
Released: 2008
Considered the heaviest Autumns Eyes album to date, Surrender the Fire also hosts the track which eventually became Autumns Eyes first music video for the song Feast of the Dead. The metal community soaked in every ounce of this album with praise from all across the globe. Fans and critics alike became enamored with its ferocious speed and blistering intensity. To date it marks one of the most popular Autumns Eyes albums ever released.
1. Greedy Demon Parasites
2. Empty Bliss
3. What’s Left of Flesh
4. Feast of the Dead
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The Awakening of the Sleeping King
Released: 2007
If you are a fan of heavy music, chances are you have come across your fair share of concept albums. While The Awakening of the Sleeping King doesn’t expose its concepts so blatantly, the lyrical themes still surround themselves within a singular story. Simply put, its a personal reflection of someone who suffers from multiple personalities. Often times these types of people can also suffer from multiple psychotic voices in their head, which are represented here by both clean and screaming vocals.
1. Provoke the Nightmare
2. Dedicate and Dispose
3. The Might of a Whisper
4. Watching Over
5. Protean Disaster
6. Answers to Ashes, Trust to Dust
7. Trysting Place
8. Seeded With Vengeance
9. Parallel Absolution
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Abandoned Expression
Released: 2005
Not every album should sound exactly the same, and some times change must be embraced with drastic precision. Abandoned Expression might only showcase a small selection of songs, but it certainly speaks volumes with its unique musicality. Ranging from progressive to gothic rock, the album is layered with a signature sense of mellow yet somber ambience that is sure to lure your senses into unfamiliar yet recognizable territory.
1. Artificial Light
2. Break the Trend
3. Instinctive
4. Shallow Hole
5. Wait
6. To Say Goodbye
In a Sense
Released: 2004
The result of a massive creative spark, In a Sense contains a large collection of tracks which focus mainly on the occult. As with most Autumns Eyes earlier albums, it was recorded with limited technology and equipment. Drum loops, cheap keyboards, and unfamiliar recording software still could not hold back the wave of heavy inspiration flowing through what would soon become an underrated favorite amongst Autumns Eyes fans.
1. Adept
2. Body Bag
3. Skeleton Figure
4. Malice and Bliss
5. Swimming the Witch
6. Legal Suicide
7. Zombie Vanity
8. Spider Blood
9. Spitting Out the Obvious
10. Back to the Clouds
11. Snake Spit
Unless Nothing
Released: 2003
One foundation Autumns Eyes has always built itself on is never setting limitations when it comes to creativity. So many bands who play this kind of music fear the very boundaries that keep them locked inside a tiny box of creative exploration. Unless Nothing was an attempt to break down those barriers and explore uncharted territory. The album exposed a mellow selection of music to metal fans who would not likely expect such a positive sound to come from what appears to be such a negative persona.
1. Face of Immortality
2. Await Anxiety
3. Unless Nothing
4. Tokyo Climate
Downfall of Giants
Released: 2002
A young man in his twenties has many emotions battling for dominance inside his head, and Downfall of Giants was an attempt to quench those emotions. After the full length album Remember the Victim was recorded, a handful of material was still left on the table, including different versions of songs previously recorded. Downfall of Giants may not have the best sonic qualities when compared to an album recorded in a professional studio, but what it lacks in audio quality, it makes up for with absolute devotion towards creating honest music fueled by honest emotions.
1. Seed
2. Downfall of Giants
3. All the Angels Bleed and Cry
4. A Falling Forest
5. My Clouded Eyes
6. Only at Night
7. Remember the Victim
Remember the Victim
Released: 2001
After learning the ins and outs of analog recording equipment, Autumns Eyes sole member Daniel Mitchell was introduced to the world of digital audio production. A limitless ocean of creative potential and possibilities opened Dan’s eyes to what would soon become his profession. Remember the Victim is a harsh record on the ears due to the lack of knowledge in the digital realm, and its song structures are as sporadic as the lyrics. However, its an album layered with ultimate inspiration from all things heavy and horrific.
1. Chew On Your Fingers
2. My Clouded Eyes
3. Creepygirl
4. October
5. Inhale Your God
6. Ghost
7. Remember the Victim
Expanse of Eternity
Released: 1999
The genesis of Autumns Eyes sonic therapy began with this short instrumental album recorded on a cassette tape four track recorder. The project was so new that Autumns Eyes as a name didn’t even exist yet. Expanse of Eternity is not available to the public due to the inevitable deterioration of cassette tapes used to record it, but the album was careful recreated note for note in 2013 under the new title, Broken Leaves and Haunted Streets.
1. Branches Across the Blinds
2. Accepting Madness
3. Lucid Empathy
4. Threat of My Extinction
5. Foreshadowed Misery