The “long awaited and delayed split” by From Oceans to Autumn and Fire On The Horizon comes courtesy of Forgotten Empire Records, the label that also released From Oceans to Autumn’s debut Calmed By The Tide in late 2007. It's a sweeping collection of familiar figurative terms which isn’t immediately an indicator of great inspiration to me.

Fire On The Horizon had previously recorded an album, but this is the first material to be widely released by this instrumental Glasgow fourpiece. The band amazes with two epic-length tracks, filled with swelling structures and mellow ambient. Once “Morella” struggles through its somewhat awkward opening, the rigid ambient makes place for the solid distorted rhythm guitars and distinctive floating reverbed leads. Although the drums seem to be struggling to keep up the pace when “Hold The Light Higher” opens, it flows into a warm, yet relentless, droning piece of post-metal. It’s not innovative or top-shelf material, but it does charm the listener with an accessible sound and solid structure. If they can rise over those awkward blemishes and get some experience points, it sure does sound promising for the future.

From Oceans to Autumn’s half of the split contains two new tracks and a re-mastered/re-mixed version of “On My Way Home…” This track was previously released on their debut, but for some reason the band found it necessary to re-master and re-mix this track only eight months after its first release. The debut album wasn’t hailed for it’s mixing in the review by the Silent Ballet, but besides the (even longer) enduring sound of rain and some minor mix changes, nothing spectacular was altered.

I had to force myself most of the time to get through the three tracks at once. Not only does the drum kit sound like it was recorded in a cardboard padded garage, the lines are just ridiculously misplaced. There’s nothing wrong with repetitive use of drumlines, but showing of how many toms you have does not make your music more ‘metal’, sadly enough. Once you get past all that, the beauty and complexity of the ambient is stunning. The collision of creepy guitar noises and ambient electronics drowning in the echoing of post-metal guitars is skilfully orchestrated. Massively reverbed, wailing guitars are the trademark sound of a lot of bands these days, and although FOtA’s compositions are of epic proportions, they still manage to keep enough variety in them to keep it interesting.

Split releases are mostly something strange; a glorified demo, or to promote a band to a similar bands audience, sometimes an epic release, and this is a bit of it all (except the epic part). Ten dollars for 65 minutes of music is nevertheless not a bad deal. Fire on the Horizon is a band with potential to follow up, and From Oceans to Autumn is a decent band, if you can stand attention claiming drums at least.

-Jurgen Verhasselt