Maudlin Of The Well
Leaving Your Body Map

THE REVIEW

Listening to them for the first time might be unsettling, listening to them for the second time would make them particularly enjoyable, and from the third time on, you fall in love and there’s nothing you can do about it, because, as we know, the heart wants what it wants, and perhaps it is precisely the heart that is the core of an album like "Leaving Your Body Map" by Maudlin Of The Well, an avant-garde band from Boston, USA.

Describing the feelings you can experience in front of such a work is particularly difficult, perhaps due to its colorful nature, but also thanks to its ability to touch your soul in the deepest way, whether it's because the album manages to be sweet and atmospheric while at the same time sad and violent, almost obsessive, but also because in one single track these fantastic musicians are capable of transitioning from jazz/progressive atmospheres to real death metal outbursts that will take your breath away (almost like when you slam the accelerator in a car and you're catapulted against the back of the seat).

The meticulous work of the band in creating rarefied and refined atmospheres capable, as mentioned, of spanning different genres, is immediately evident in the opening track "Stones Of October’s Sobbing", which after a slow start (which brought to mind our own Perigeo) then transforms into an extremely violent death metal song, with a very deep growl, which, despite being almost in complete contrast with some melodic solutions (melody that always remains in the foreground) manages in its own way to please the listener.

Then there's the splendid "Bizarre Flowers – A Violent Mist", a chameleonic track capable of shifting from extremely atmospheric moments to darker ones, yet always remaining of great taste. The elegance of the first part of the song comes out thanks to a skillful mix of classic rock music elements, such as guitars, bass, and drums, but also because it often resorts to various atmospheric elements such as the echo of bell sounds. The other tracks continuously fluctuate between violent pieces like the pair "Riseth He, The Numberless part I and II" and more delicate moments that culminate in the five minutes and thirty-seven seconds of "Sleep Is A Curse", truly moving in its slow and dreamy pace. Needless to say, the instrumental performance of each individual musician is really top-notch, ranging from almost Pink Floyd-like and progressive moments to others more strictly metal.

A masterpiece indeed, worthy of being included among the best experimental records in the metallic field from 2001 to today.