While Heaven Wept turned a lot of heads with 2009’s incredible Vast Oceans Lachrymose, finding a killer balance between crushing, epic doom and prog similar to Fates Warning at their most sprawling. A brief two years later, Tom Phillips and company returned with Fear of Infinity, a vastly different album in structure that worked largely as a long suite of songs. Compared to its predecessor, it was a tad understated (then again, compared to “The Furthest Shore,” most things feel understated), further emphasizing prog and lowering the doom traits. With Suspended At Aphelion, this trend continues, as does the unapologetically beautiful nature of WHW’s music, which brings us the most obvious point one could make about the album:
Suspended At Aphelion is an absolutely gorgeous, often stunning piece of music, to the point that it may turn off many a hardened metal fan.
In instrumentation and composition, this is only marginally a metal album, and in mood, it has left that realm completely, taking on an angelic, 1,000-member-church-choir level of holy triumph. If that sounds way too light and fluffy for ya, well, the back button is your door out. If you like occasionally living in the light, then read on, for there is beauty to be had.
But not just beauty and light, thankfully. Suspended At Aphelion finds plenty of time for darkness, working very much as a struggle between opposing forces. Within “Icarus And I/Ardor,” this complexity is evident. Early moments balancing classical guitar with simple heavy chords and suitably suspended Rain Irving vocal melodies soon give way to somewhat blackened chords and the rare appearance of harsh vocals (undoubtedly the album’s most ‘metal’ moment). Similarly, the soft “Heartburst” is followed by the busy instrumental “Indifference Turned Paralysis,” with the music always moving upward towards some great conclusion, but never getting to the point of complete emotional outburst. This would be saved for later tracks, when bombast and complexity give way to a long realization of triumph. Majestic to be sure, but naturally so, with nothing forced, rather intentionally restrained at all but the most key moments.
To present this narrative, While Heaven Wept has turned the progressive rock and metal dials way up, with Suspended At Aphelion resembling any number of holistic prog pieces of the past. Much of it still calls to mind the prog of Fates Warning and even Dream Theater at their most conceptual, but the album’s somewhat restrained nature means that the virtuosity never ever gets in the way of the music. So while this may often sound like that kind of prog, it’s doesn’t behave like that kind of prog, which is a huge key to its success. It never gives in to the temptation to become a backdrop for the band’s prowess, despite being loaded with great leads, clever keyboard parts (organ, piano, synth, more), Rain Irving’s divine vocals, and wonderfully understated drum work from Trevor Schrotz.
There is a certain selflessness in this approach, and it pays dividends. With all of the talent on hand, Suspended At Aphelion is still about the song; the nuanced, delicate, and intricate 40 minute song. With graceful theatricality and undeniable class, While Heaven Wept keeps sailing down their path of righteousness, even if they’re now soaring among the stars instead of battling the hefty waves.
