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Leaves' Eyes - Lovelorn


*
=Staff's pick

Norwegian Lovesong*
Tale Of The Sea Maid
Ocean's Way*
Lovelorn
The Dream*
Secret
For Amelie
Temptation*
Into Your Light*
Return To Life


Genre Gothic Metal
Liv Kristine, Alex Krull
Vocals
Tracks 10
Mathias Röderer
Guitar
Runningtime 42 Min.
Thorsten Bauer
Guitar
Label Napalm Records
Chris Lukhaup
Bass
Release 24 May 2004
Martin Schmidt
Drums
Country Germany
-
Keyboards
Similar artists Theatre Of Tragedy, Blackmore's Night

After Liv Kristine Espenaes Krull had left Theatre Of Tragedy back in 2002, she quickly teamed up with her husband Alexander Krull, member of long running german act Atrocity, with the rest of the members of that band to form a new project, while Atrocity still are persuing their career as usual, and this is the result. The music goes pretty much in the gothic style that you could expect, and got to know her through, but man - this is surprisingly good.

Noone should be able to rise many arguments against that she has a wondeful voice, but this is her best effort ever. Musically it is similar to what Theatre Of Tragedy has previoulsy made and still are making, both when it comes to the backing wall of fat guitars and the very atmosperic moods. It has a lot of personality and it feels strong and glowing, so to say, and there are some different and experimental elements. It is a good pace and flow through the album, which I find necessary to make this music enjoyable, and during some fragments when the intensity and power rise, parallells can be drawn to Nightwish, for example. It is very heavy at times, but the instruments all have their clear place in the sound picture, thanks to an awesome production, and that helps giving this a majestic feeling, instead of that boring gray wall of guitars that usually occur in bands like this.

Liv Kristine of course performs splendidly here, and this is clearly the performance of her life so far. Sometimes, especially and most logically during the soft and atmospheric parts of the songs, it is both musically and vocally very, very close to Blackmore's Night, and Liv is at some points almost a deadringer for Candice Night. Mixed with a tiny bit irish and medieval melodies and moods, just as mentioned Blackmore's Night, it creates a very beautiful and colorful picture. A lot of very delicate verse melodies, as well as refrains, keep passing by and it's very hard not to fall in love with them instantly and you find yourself humming along throughout the album after a few spins.

As well as with most of the bands in this genre, we get a growling man on vocals also, that is interacting with Liv on some songs and brings the stories forward lyrically. Sometimes that thing can be and feel pretentious and lame, if it's not well done, arranged and sung like, but here it fits perfectly. Just the perfect amount of growling, and it's very well done by Alex Krull. It is of course at this times that the resemblences with Theatre Of Tragedy are the biggest. The difference is that this stands as undisputble winner when it's time to sum up. It has class, it has grace, it hits you right in the heart.

I really like, or even adore, this as it appeals both to my metal side and the part of me that loves the beautiful and dreaming moods, and I keep coming back to one word in this review: beautiful, because that is exactly what this is. I can't stop playing this album. Then again, I don't really want to stop.....

See also review of: Sign Of The Dragonhead

Production
Vocals
Compositions

10

9,5

9

 
Summary



9 chalices of 10 - Tommy

Related links:

www.leaveseyes.de