Metal Reviews

Great seeing that there are Charon fans here.

How can we not be they're great. Juha has some awesome vocals.

Exactly, lately I can't get Bitter Joy out of my head, what a killer track.

Also, this band deserve the popularity that HIM have, they are way superior.

1. Tristania - Beyond The Veil
2. Theatre of Tragedy - Velvet Darkness They Fear
3. Draconian - Arcane Rain Fell
4. Forest Stream - Tears of Mortal Solitude
5. Lacrimas Profundere - Memorandum
6. Virgin Black - Elegant... and Dying
7. The Eternal - The Sombre Light of Isolation
8. Lacuna Coil - Unleashed Memories
9. Swallow The Sun - The Ghosts of Loss
10. Tiamat - A Different Kind of Slumber

There we go, with a nod to the mighty Virgin Black. I don't think there are any other Virgin Black fans on this forum

I've meant to listen to them for a long time now, but I guess I never got around to it.

O MY SHIT DO IT NOW!

http://www.myspace.com/virginblackofficial

I am yet to buy the new release, but I will get it as soon as I can afford to.

I have sombre and romantic it was pretty good but nothing exceptional., So I never considered purchasing other albums.
My main beef about the band is the singer, his vocals are pretty weak on their first release, hopefully he took care of his flaws for the their other releases otherwise he would be dragging the rest of the band down.

Weak? Hm, I always considered his voice to be fine enough, if a little nasal. I've seen them live, and unlike most clean singers he can actually do his stuff live as well as he does it on the albums. I don't see how it could be a problem for most people considering that Nightwish have troops and troops of fanboys despite Tarja's flat, boring and generic voice.

Virgin Black is quite awesome and the new album isn't bad just not as good as Sombre Romantic imo. It is well worth the fifteen dollars but it doesn't need the additional Midnight Hymn. ...And I Am Suffering is an epic track and one of their best songs.

Hmm, listening to And I Am Suffering now, and I must say it's pretty damn nice. I'm diggin the whole Operatic Doom Metal thing going on.

I still stand by my opinion that his vocals need work on Sombre romantic as they are cringe-inducing at times on that album.
The album is still good though I'd give it a 74%

As for your comment about Tarja being a generic singer, that's just a ridiculous statement. She was one of the first to sing in operatic style and her voice is easily distinguishable from others. Generic would be a voice that is like many others and Tarja's vocals are quite the opposite.

It's not generic if you like pop-goth, but it is generic if you listen to opera etc. It's just too husky and retard-ish for me to enjoy. I don't like her voice period.

I am, but Sombre Romantic is much better then Elegan IMO

I like both albums, but the new release is amazing. They've hired a real orchestra instead of synthesizing the orchestral parts and the album is dominated by female vocals. Can't wait for the other two in the triple release.

A little update of my top 10.

Notables not listed are Poisonblack's Escapextacy, To/Die/For -Wounds Wide Open and Sentenced's Frozen and Down.

Hard to say for me, I dig this genre.

Within Temptation might be my favorite metal band, and my favorite by them is "The Silent Force" (I think it's their most powerful recording), though I love just about everything they've put out (yes, even "The Heart of Everything").

I also love me some "Aegis" (Theatre of Tragedy), "Consign to Oblivion" (Epica), "The Unexpected" (Beautiful Sin, though I'm not sure this falls in this genre), "Once" (Nightwish), "Widow's Weeds" (Tristania, "My Lost Lenore"'s arrangements are gorgeous), "Embrace the Storm" (Stream of Passion") . . .

. . . and ever so more.

1. Paradise Lost - Draconian Times
2. Ashes To Ashes - Cardinal VII
3. Sisters of Mercy - Floodland
4. Charon - Downhearted
5. Nightwish - Century Child
6. Lacuna Coil - Comalies
7. Within Temptation - Enter
8. Battlelore - Sword's Song
9. Nightwish - Oceanborn
10. Epica - Consign to Oblivion

I'm only going to pick one album per band.

Goth rock, deathrock, post-punk:
1. Christian Death - Catastrophe Ballet
2. Radio Werewolf - unreleased debut album
3. London After Midnight - Psycho Magnet
4. Suspiria - Drama
5. Joy Division - Closer

Honourable mentions:
Bauhaus - Mask
The Sisters of Mercy - First and Last and Always
Corpus Delicti - Twilight
Kommunity FK - The Vision and the Voice


Gothic Metal:
1. Theatres des Vampires - Bloody Lunatic Asylum
2. Cradle of Filth - The Principle of Evil Made Flesh
3. Moonspell - Irreligious
4. Deinonychus - The Weeping of a Thousand Centuries
5. Cultus Sanguine - Shadows' Blood

This is what I consider gothic metal to be. I'm reluctant to consider gothic metal solely a product of doom/death or symphonic metal.

I don't really have a horse in this race (genre wise), but I will say that when I think of Gothic Metal my first thought goes to Theater of Tragedy - In Velvet Darkness They Fear. And When He Falleth is the be all end all Goth song, to my ears.

Well, probably I wouldn't tell anyone anything new here.
Mainly because a good dark and intense yet deeply melancholic and romantic goth just isn't around anymore for quite long.
Anyway, a personal note would be that it's very sad to me that The Sins of Thy Beloved gets little attention even here...they are just perfect.

1. (and far above all others) Tristania - Widow's Weeds
2. The Sins of Thy Beloved - Lake of Sorrow
3. The Sins of Thy Beloved - Perpetual Desolation
4. Tristania - Beyond The Veil
5. Theatre of Tragedy - Velvet Darkness They Fear
6. Sirenia - At Sixes And Sevens
7. Sirenia - An Elexier for Existence
8. Trail of Tears - A New Dimension of Might
9. Afterforever - Prison of Desire
10. Moonspell - Irreligious


thought of adding Cradle of Filth's Dusk And Her Embrace and Epica's Consign to Oblivion somewhere, but they are different flavours of gothic metal (two extreme edges) that don't fit in this list.