Autumn is coming down hard here in the North, as I guess in most parts of the Western world and beyond. With the Fall being one of the major metal seasons for me, both for nostalgic reasons as well as symbolically (the great cold death of the Earth!), I'm interested in what bands/albums you find the most autumnal, be it because of their sound or from pure nostalgia.

I'd say that one of the most clear-cut autumn-like sounds in metal is the acoustic guitar, esp. if combined with clean vocals - the melancholic rustling of fallen leaves in the increasingly cold winds, you know. ULVER - Bergtatt & Kveldsanger, early OPETH, AGALLOCH, SOLEFALD - In Harmonia Universalis, this autumn also later DORNENREICH, perhaps some EMPYRIUM even though I haven't listened to that band for ages.
There is of course also room for more general Black Metal (Burzum, Immortal etc), though more wintry in its aesthetics, the sounds represents the mentioned winds very well; the warm melancholy of winter's death.

What do you feel about autumnal Metal? What music represents this season for you, and why? What about other seasons, like... spring?

Ah yes, autumn. Great season for walking the woods and enjoying the moody atmosphere. I will second Ulver's early releases and Empyrium (Weiland). Scanning my collection I also found In The Woods..., Lamented Souls, The Mist and the Morning Dew, My Dying Bride, Oberon and Tenhi. Tenhi most of all, though. After reading your post I immediately thought of their latest album, Maaäet. If you want autumnal music you need to give this a listen.

october. rust.

First and foremost I would list Written in Waters. I think that one is pretty obvious and I don't need to go into detail, heh.

Another one for me is early Thorns. Grymyrk has that perfect atmosphere; meloncholy, and haunting desolation that fits perfectly with autumnal moods.

Along those lines Skepticism - Lead and Aether and Stormcrowfleet have always been some of my favorites to leave on repeat around this time.

Also Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto no. 2, and Bach - Air on a G String. These guys were pretty metal, at least in my opinion.

Drudkh

GRUENEWALD - same. Not Metal, but the pure essence of autumn.

DISMAL EUPHONY - Autumn Leaves...

Hey, autumnal greetings.

From the top of my head I would suggest old melancholy Scandinavian prog rock with lots of Mellotron. Morte Macabre, Landberk, (early) White Willow and Paatos. Anglagard, Anekdoten. Bittersweet.
It is not easy to rationalize the associations with the autumn season. Generally, the sound aesthetics play a big role to me, I guess. The way a Mellotron sounds is just so fucking evocative and powerful, perfect for grey and windy days. Same with acoustic guitar, as you said - and slow, drawn-out, emotional solos of course! Listen to Morte Macabre's track "Quiet Drops" and tell me what makes it so incredibly autumnal. I can't describe it.

Then, Neofolk: Death In June, In Gowan Ring/Birch Book, Nature and Organization, maybe a little Sol Invictus. Backworld. And all Kim Larsen stuff.

Also labeled as Apocalyptic Folk, these bands are just predestined for the season of decay. A warm cello sound sends additional shivers down the rain-soaked spine, recovering from the cold in front of the comforting warm radiator (or luxurious fireplace, depending on your income)

Neurosis. Cult Of Luna.

Lava-like streams of decay caress your feeble ears. A sound full of open space. Compare this to the average Metal production - it is just deeply absorbing and engulfing, fitting the autumn introspection.

New American Folk: Steve von Till. Harvestman. Arborea. Pamela Wyn Shannon. Marissa Nadler.

Beautiful. P.W. Shannon's "Courting Autumn" may possibly be one of the most perfect albums for this season.

"Post"-Rock: Mogwai, White Birch, GY!BE, Sigur Ros

Neverending dirges of frailty and yearning. Contemplation without direction. Again, the sound contributes a lot.

Slowcore/Sadcore: Low, Red House Painters

Autumnal Black Fucking Forest Metal
Kvist, Perished. Min Tid Skal Komme. Nattens Madrigal.

DOOM
Indeed, Skepticism. Morgion. Disembowelment. Mournful Congregation. Saturnus (!)

Neverending dirges of death and impending doom. But oh, so beautiful. Sweet sickness and colossal, planet-crushing, hypnotizing riffs win me over any time.

Tenhi, yes. This Empty Flow. Nick Drake.

Next time: Winter and Spring.

I'm afraid I have to repeat myself and then be boring, the choice is yours.

The 3rd & the Mortal with Ann-Mari
Decoryah - Fall-dark Waters
those post-rock or experimental styles which take on seriously the question of space/place where I can abide

and basically everything that allows me to round up a whole of the senses and their primal companion - the weather of these months which can reach even to early November in the region where I live. it's true that these months allow for the autumnal stops in the 4-phase cycle of the moderate climate. I'm not sure what is leading when it comes to combining these factors: I think the sun, clear sky and the stillness of elements which reach a frail balance. it's like the arriving and the departing are watching each other. so, it's definitive of something bigger than a full-blown season, a season at its peak. basically this allows me to contemplate the process of coming forces and leaving forces, the sequences in the long-run, the ever fleeting, the lack of kingdom, but the kingdom of our temporality. and of course, I'm most susceptive to just staring, the roamings of the mind, the blank spots between fake momentary tides...
there's also something historical when it comes to delivering such reverie like mine; because solitude is a rare state, a state hard to achieve, I'm usually surrounded by witnesses from the past, figures representing empires or creeds.. they too watch the angle of the sun-beams and the leaves of the trees before the coming darker and colder days. we witness each other. it's like postponing, this entire shit, moments stolen from the never-turning course of events, lapsuses

Now music, essential or not to this ? I think it is, because even in the outside; when the picture's influence is like the stationed-above .. very often a peculiar part of a song joins the mind-trip and why not thanks to memory it is (for me) the music that is in close terms with outlining, adding the emotional tuning, giving the proportion a way to out-growing the sore of simply being a victim.

Totally agree with FragileOak: Scandinavian mellotronen prog folk rock sounds often autumnal to me as well. Empyrium have great influences from Landberk...

Many metal bands have been named so far, so I just throw around some beyond names:




TRENTEMÖLLER - The Last Resort

Well, the cover says all, doesn't it? Ambient techno, minimal music, maximum atmosphere.

- - - -

BURIAL - Untrue


So to say the "Dimmu Borgir of Dubstep", thus quite in question in the dubstep underground, nvthlss great atmosphere as well. For me personally quite close to Burzum in regard to the lost & loneliness effect.

Well, most of the metal and non-metal music I listen to is quite decay-oriented, cold and lonely, but I will try to add some special ones, like Anathema's The Silent Enigma (with Shroud of Frost, A dying wish or Black Orchid), or the Carpathian Forest song 'Cold comfort' which has a very dirgey and cold feel.
I remember past times when I enjoyed playing the CoF song 'Summer dying fast' when autumn was approaching, even if I did not listen to the band for ages then. This year I didn't listen to it (at least yet).
I agree with Kveldssanger and Bergtatt, I have also a good remembrance of listening to Kveldssanger while eating a warm cocido at the kitchen of my parents.
Nouveau Gloaming also has a certain feel of falling leaves, at least to me in songs like Brass Dogs.
And, ultimately, Beyond Dawn's (almost all?) discography.

Edit: forgot to say that Arcturus' Aspera is an autumn/winter classic. Well, all the year indeed, but in colder seasons it fits a lot better.

Hmmm Tenhi, Sun of the Sleepless, Dornenreich, MDB, In Gowan Ring, Sol Invictus, Death in June, early Opeth and tons more, can't point my finger at it...but the best thing is a walk through the mist in an old park or by the river

i wuz gonna type this.........