And this comparison makes it very hard to distinguish what The Dark Element adds to this music genre. For example the song Pills on my Pillow starts like any proper NW-song starts. The chorus of Silence between the Words has parts that can be laid one on one with Edema Ruh (Nightwish – Endless Forms Most Beautiful) and sounds like a cheap copy of that song.

Then again… Anette partly defined the Nightwish sound during her six years collaboration with the band, no wonder that she took inspiration from it and on the other hand Nightwish changed with her.

Basically one can say this album is very nice, for any fan of symphonic metal, but two-third of the album is music in a well-known style, not new, yet of a nice quality.

The last four songs on the album are of a different type, with a total different vibe and style, quite refreshing and more outstanding. Would all songs from a next album sound like this, I will not start comparing to NW anymore

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With titles like Therapy, Kill Kill Kill Die Die Die and A White Horse Called Death it is not hard to imagine depression and aggression, yet the aggression seems withheld, making it thematically heavier.
There are a few moments of relative peace as well, as heard in New Order (of the Ages) Part 1 and the start of the twelve minute long last song Kobe (Doors of Spirit).

This last song spins out its theme long enough to drag you in, making great musical landscape. Listening to this album at full volume, with the bass on 10 one can really dive into the music.

In all fairness, their first album grabbed me more than this one, it is less fresh, less powerful…and sometimes less…is just less. (But hell, I rated their first album as a great debut with kick ass metal riffs… Not easy to top that!) So, less then a nine is still an eight!

You can read our earlier review of The Lumberjack Feedback’s Blackened Visions here.

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It is a bit odd to review an album twenty years after its release, so I will be short and sweet about the original and focus more on the new and reworked songs.
The Mercury album is in a few ways different from how we know Madder Mortem the last decade and more. The atmosphere is in a way more serene, doomier and with less big surprises. It is easy to listen to the album and swing from one song to the other, they differ less than nowadays work. The album is like a melodic, darkish fairy-tale. Here and there something lurks in the shadows and sometimes you get surprised by a faster riff, but on the whole it is easy going. It probably helps that BP did not add any male vocals to this album, he started doing that with the album All Flesh is Grass.

Now shining a light on the reworked songs. In one sentence: they have way more identity then the first versions! They sound more alive and the tension in the songs is build up better. And it has to be said, although the garage-like sound of both instruments and vocals on the original is very fitting, Agnete’s voices has grown and gives the songs a stronger body. The addition of BP’s vocals, both the screams and the clean ones, makes the songs much more convincing.
The first hearing of He Who Longed for the Stars was a bit of a shock, being used to the original, but after the second hearing it already got me. The three reworked songs easily slide into each other yet all have their own identity and strength. It was a pleasure to all of a sudden hear a mouth harp in The Grinding Silence!

Then looking at the new songs. It has to be said, Shadows Coming Home has more or less the same intro as Convertion on the original album, yet the song is much pointier and louder, with fast vocals and nice guitarworks. It seems to be a song fitting as well in 1999 as in 2019. It could however be much shorter, for the surprises are gone after a minute or three, the second half seems to mirror the first half.
Vigil is a dreamlike song, with a beautiful introduction, that would also fit very well in their later album Eight Ways, for example. A long, atmospheric guitar part, good use of male vocals to lift up Agnete’s voice and making it stronger, just like they did in the reworked version of The Grinding Silence. All in all the album can be concluded in the very last few seconds of this song: “I love you…”
Good to have these old times relived with you, Madder Mortem!

You can read our earlier reviews of Madder Mortem’s albums Red In Tooth and Claw and Marrow here and here. You can also read our interview with them here.

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The album starts with a nice catchy bass/drum/guitar introduction, Tears Roll Down. Yet when the singing starts it gives me a pop-feeling, making the song very smooth.
A MG Of Stone, the second song is heavier, like a mix between Katatonia and Guns ‘n’ Roses and the third, My Escape, also has a very strong reference to different bands I heard before.
There is nothing wrong with the production of the album and the music stands like a house, it is just not a very original concept.

Take Back Our Life, the fifth song, makes me get up from my chair. Again a nice introduction and rhythm, catchy but not too smooth. Free From Yesterday has a nice different style within the song, blues rock mixed with heavy rock. Quite nice!

Stormy Weather: Well, it takes eight songs into the album, but here is a very interesting song, an original sound and fine use of voice and instruments. On The Edge Of Madness sounds a lot like the Dutch doomies The Wounded, yet with a nice twist added to it. 

All in all the album contains twelve songs, all a bit different, yet with strong resemblance to work we heard before. All songs work alright, but they do not form one identity. As Marco Barusso said in his interview with DMM, it is all about choices. Maybe for this album he made to many choices? The Price seems to be a project that leans on ideas of the past, but also has interesting ideas of its own. Now…time to work on these! Quite sure the next album will be worth The Price.

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The musical world that Baradj creates is yet not to be missed. A very nice mix of folk, post-rock and post-metal makes you forget all musical boundaries and invites you into an ethnical world, where Bulgar traditions mix with modern metal.

While listening to this album I was traveling not only to Eastern-European countries, I was also traveling through different musical styles. Sometimes forgetting I was actually listening to a metal band. Sometimes folk and metal are mixed within songs, but there is also plenty of space for pure folk music with acoustic guitar and traditional elements in a composition fitting to modern times. The folksongs are given the time and space they deserve and really belong to the whole. The band wanted to make a conceptional album and I think they succeeded wonderfully well.

The mix of styles can sometimes get you confused a bit. Like in post-metal a beautiful, relaxed song can change into a haunting song because of the harsh vocals that comes up somewhere halfway (Tengri). The clean vocals used can sound a bit too smooth, yet the band makes very clear this is not pop-rock by immediately combining this with harsh vocals and a post-rock soundscape. Bolgar Dalasy is almost romantic, but in Altynchach, probably the most diverse song on the album, all styles strengthen each other.

Although I was unfamiliar with the band, it has been a very nice discovery. It is a musical mix that I have not heard before and is performed in a way that is well thought over and worked out in nice details.

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However…after the first song Tarre leaves the Frisian language and moves to English instead. And that is actually the downside of the album. Meindert Pander is a fine vocalist, as he proved with his other bands/projects (Pander and others). English suits him fine, but Frisian just works better, basically because in that language his tone of voice is lower and doomier. 

There is more than vocals of course. The songs are all of a certain length, making it possible to have variety within the songs, without the feeling of putting too much in too little time. There are some very good moments, and even a funny one. Especially the start of Skin Fits Me is very strong, and would immediately turn any listener into a metalhead. During Repulsive Vanity we hear a spoken word sample, with the positive message “the human body is a pitiful sack of blood, piss and water. I fear in your case … mostly piss”

The production of the album is fairly rough, giving it a garage-sound to it. This production is fitting though, would it be too slick, it would soil the sound. After listening through the entire album, roughly an hour, my conclusion is that there could be a bit more variation into it and…there it is again, please, more Frisian songs, it would surely make the next album stronger. Otherwise, maybe just change the name of the band to ‘Tar’ instead of Tarre

Come back tomorrow if you want to check our interview with Tarre’s bass guitarist Meindert Sterk!

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Opener Rites of the Hidden Souls is an energetic start, both rocking and dark. The band is well equipped with both good instruments and technique, as well as their knowledge of musical history and progression. Within five minutes they rock you into their own special world.
Wandering Soul takes the double time and with that has more time for darker interludes and spun out themes.
The song with the most intriguing name is Participation Mystique Totalitaire and has clear hints to 70s psychedelic sounds, just as easily mixed with doomy vocals and halfway changing to old skool heavy metal.
Fourth song on the album When the Bird Fledges is -to me- a great one, because I like mysterious and slow build-ups. And that is exactly what you get! Totally sludge/doom.
In total six songs fill this album (most of the songs between eight and ten minutes, though) with an exclusive bonus track on the CD. A nice idea, because it would stimulate buying instead of just listening on spotify The extra song, Only Lies, is a nice way to get to know the band, just long enough, with a fresh mix of guitarsolo and darker sounds.

All in all the album is a nice addition to the first three albums and in a way more accessible then the others, maybe because of the recognisable heavy metal sound mixed into the songs. RRRROCK ON!

Here you can read our review of Albez Duz’ earlier album Wings of Tzinacan.

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The opening of the DVD makes clear my ‘theatrical’ idea still stands. More so, the Italians chose to make a circus setting of the stage. Simply with huge curtains hung in the right way and a tent at the back, you feel like being in the circus pavilion and the show is ready to begin… With nice shots of fans standing in line and making ready for the concert, the DVD gets you in the right mood. The production is a good one, yet maybe a bit too smooth. When the first song starts, you only hear the audience at the start and at the end, probably all sound from the audience is faded away. A choice that has two sides. On the one hand it makes the CD very listenable: no yells or whistles disturbing the songs, purely good quality music. On the other hand, watching the DVD, it almost feels like the audience is not allowed to be there during the music, I like to feel like being part of the crowd when I see a live DVD, here I merely feel like a spectator.

This said, the quality of the recordings and performance is superb. To me it is like listening to version 2.0’s of especially the older songs, that sound more alive then on the record.

Enough about the sound. Also visually there is enough to see. No circus without performers. Throughout the show different performers enter the stage. I have a big question mark above my head with the first one, a half goat/half women walks on stage, dances more or less, but apart from the outfit, nothing really triggers and to be honest, I never saw a satyr at the circus…
Other performers work better, clowns, trapeze, pyro, you name them!
During an intermezzo, followed by the ballad Falling, the show is full blown cabaret. I more and more appreciate the eye for details that the band portrays here.

Then the appearance of the band themselves. By facepainting all members with variations of the skull-theme, except both vocalists, they seem to matter less then central figures Christina and Andrea. Maybe they choose this because, together with Marco (bass), they are the oldest members of the band?
Christina is the exception to the rest, changing clothes (basically, adding some here, some there) every now and then. Sometimes it really does fit the songs, making the theatre complete, yet when she wears her white outfit, it does look a bit like a sack of potatoes…

When the clowns come…the show is almost over…yet after their hypnotizingly weird performance, the band has three more songs for the audience. In all honesty, I never thought their version of Joy Divisions Enjoy the Silence was a necessity, making it into a ‘sing-along’ goes a bit too far for me.
With Nothing Stands in Our Way as last song, the band makes clear that there is nothing to stop them from going on for at least another ten years!

Here you can also read our review of Lacuna Coil’s Delirium.

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It is a lovely bath of sorrow, with both in lyrics and in sound time to grieve but also time to show gratitude towards life, despite all the struggles. On the album there is no song that stands out, or all songs stand out. In Its Absense is by far the darkest song. Pools of Reflection brings the great addition of some female vocals (do not be afraid of a hint of gothic metal!). Sentiment is a well balanced song and A Garden Where Nothing Grows makes clear why this is one of the greater doom albums.

A long review is not necessarily a better review. One should just listen to the album, a perfect soundtrack to contemplate the year in the dark month of December…

Here you can also read our review of The Tomb Of All Things by Un.

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The music is a goth/rock blend and reminds of Sisters of Mercy and the ‘male songs’ of Faith and the Muse. Actually, a lot of bands can be heard in their sound. And that might be the flaw, it is not really refreshing music. Then, the fourth song of the EP stands out! Out of the comfortzone, sounding like they do not take themselves too serious (in a good way!)… but that turns out to be a cover of Dead and Gone. A good one that is though! They really take this and all the other songs up from the dark basements of the gothic underground, to the surface where they sound good. Not original, but still good. I do hope the band stays strong but developes their own sound even more. The last song of the EP has a fine mix of all the elements that the band could use. Waiting for the full album!

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