Gothic Metal

Edenbridge – The Bonding Review

Edenbridge – The Bonding Review

By Steel Druhm on July 4, 2013 in 2013, Austrian Metal, Gothic Metal, Heavy Metal, Power Metal, Reviews, SPV, Gothic Metal, Heavy Metal, Power Metal, 13 comments

“When I reviewed Edenbridge’s Solitaire album a few years back, I suggested their sound was only metal if you use the most generous and inclusive definition of the word. Their (slightly) evolving approach makes them sound like Nightwish’s prettier, quieter sister and many of their songs are so light, ephemeral and gauzy, they seem more akin to New Age meditation soundscapes than anything heavy or hard. While that may seem like some kind of indictment on the pages of Angry Metal Guy Dot Com, I mean it in no such way. In fact, I’ve enjoyed almost all their output because they’re so good at crafting soothing, sugar-coated odes to tranquility and I’m utterly at a loss to resist the charms of Sabine Edelsbacher’s beautiful and enchanting voice.” Lush and gorgeous music is in short supply in metaldom. Does Edenbridge’s ambitious new opus help reduce the deficit or is it just so much empty fluffery?

Lacrimas Profundere – Antiadore Review

Lacrimas Profundere – Antiadore Review

By Steel Druhm on May 31, 2013 in 2013, 3.5, German Metal, Gothic Metal, Napalm Records, Reviews, Gothic Metal, 2 comments

“More goth-metal from Napalm Records? Sure, I think we all need a break from the endless waves of retro-death, retro-thrash and black metal (which is by definition retro). Lacrimas Profundere has been around forever and over the past five or six albums, they’ve settled into a comfort zone of glum, goth-rock in the same vein as Entwine, H.I.M., To Die For and naturally they include plenty of nods to The Cure and The Cult. While one can hammer them for essentially releasing Ave End over and over again, their knack for keeping things catchy and lively continue to draw me back time after time. While I think their Filthy Notes For Frozen Hearts was their best release in this cycle, I was more than pleased with 2010s The Grandiose Nowhere and still spin it pretty often when that urge to be morose hits me.” Steel Druhm is on a goth-metal kick, so you all must deal with it and play along until we go back to death metal 24/7.

Tristania – Darkest White Review

Tristania – Darkest White Review

By Steel Druhm on May 30, 2013 in 2013, 3.0, Gothic Metal, Napalm Records, Norwegian Metal, Progressive Metal, Reviews, Progressive Metal, 9 comments

“Norway’s Tristania was one of those quirky, but compelling bands that really grabbed my attention with their Beyond the Veil album. Their strange mash-up of goth, death, black and symphonic metal was quite intoxicating and had more moods than any crazy ex girlfriend you care to mention. Follow up World of Glass was also gripping and fascinating, but as the years went by, Tristania’s wow factor rapidly drained away. By the time of 2010s Rubicon, they had become a mere shade of their former selves and the album felt like run-of-the-mill goth-metal with little to set it apart from the legions of similar female-fronted acts. I expected more of the same here with Darkest White, but I was pleasantly surprised by the improvements the band has made in their approach and song writing.” Since all we do is review death metal that sounds like Septicflesh, Steel Druhm thought it might be a good time to review some goth-metal. Tristania was available, so here they are for your viewing and reading pleasure.

Eternal Tears of Sorrow – Saivon Lapsi Review

Eternal Tears of Sorrow – Saivon Lapsi Review

By Steel Druhm on February 21, 2013 in 2013, 3.0, Black Metal, Death Metal, Finnish Metal, Gothic Metal, Massacre Records, Melodic Death Metal, Power Metal, Reviews, Black Metal, Heavy Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Power Metal, 6 comments

“Eternal Tears of Sorrow is an exceptionally fruity band name. The mere mention of it conjures images of a self-serious, black-garbed goth band (see photos) with a sultry, pouty femme fatale as front woman. If the name was keeping you away, you missed out on a quality band that blended black metal with melodic death, goth rock and symphonic power metal with good to great results. While I enjoyed all their albums, their crowning achievement was 2009’s Children of the Dark Water, which hit on the perfect combination of bombast, dark atmosphere, extremity, beauty and song writing that was shockingly good from stem to stern. At times it sounded like Cradle of Filth at their most symphonic mixed with early Cemetery, with traces of Kalmah, Insomnium and Amorphis added for good measure. After waiting over three years for a follow-up, we finally get Saivon Lapsi and with the long wait after such a great album, expectations were unavoidably high.” So… does this live up to those great expectations, or is it more of a bleak house? Get it? [YOU’RE FIRED! – AMG]

Hanging Garden – At Every Door Review

Hanging Garden – At Every Door Review

By Dr. Fisting on January 21, 2013 in 2.5, 2013, Doom Metal, Finnish Metal, Gothic Metal, Lifeforce Records, Rating, Reviews, 9 comments

As I write this, it’s 15 degrees Celsius outside. The sun rises, but does not provide any warmth. Everything in my world is covered in a thin layer of ice, and things seem to be moving very slowly. In other words: it’s cold as shit out here. This is the perfect weather for some gloomy, atmospheric, slow-ass metal. And it just so happens that I have At Every Door, the new album by Finnish sextet Hanging Garden.

Cold in Berlin – And Yet Review

Cold in Berlin – And Yet Review

By Alex Franquelli on August 18, 2012 in 2012, 4.0, Candlelight, Gothic Metal, Not Metal, Reviews, 1 comment

It looks as if they were all wrong. For years, critics of all sorts have assumed that punk could not, and would not mix up with the likes of those who thought that the light at the end of the tunnel is a truck coming in their direction. I mean, the nihilist stance of bands such as The Sex Pistols and Discharge, their “new luddism,” aimed at destroying and denying progress for the lack of an acceptable alternative, undeniably struck a chord in the goth camp. But, if destruction would act as a unifier, the means to achieve it were indeed on the opposite ends of the spectrum. The passive, almost fatalistic melancholy of goth clashed (sometimes in more that one way) with the actively destructive attitude of punk. Could we ever imagine that a synthesis would have been possible? Not until 45 Grave and deathrock came about in the early 1980s. Fast-forward to 2012 and what we find is a band that combines Joy Division, Christian Death and Refused. The good news is that it does it terribly well. The bad news? Well, this time there isn’t any. Simply because a band that tries to add something to the menu can’t fail. And if it does it with such angst and power, then it means that there’s still hope for angry music in this world.