A New Dimension Of Might

Compared to all the black gothic acts from Napalm Records, I have always thought that Trail Of Tears were below all their compatriot label mates such as Tristania, The Sins Of Thy Beloved and now Sirenia. Although I own their two previous albums, I have to say I don’t listen to them a lot because when I feel like listening to gothic black metal I generally pick up the albums of the aforementioned bands that are so much more entertaining.

This might change now with Trail Of Tears’ third release, A New Dimension Of Might. Indeed, Trail Of Tears finally shows the heavy metal world that they are a fairly talented band with their most powerful, bombastic and symphonic release to date. One could say Trail Of Tears has transformed from a gothic metal band to become a pioneer of modern metal, mixing electronic elements from The Kovenant and the aggressiveness of Dimmu Borgir with the groove of more traditional gothic metal. So in a way, they now sound more aggressive than their label mates, but the traditional black gothic elements such as the death grunt and clean male vocals, along with female angelic and opera like vocals are still present and… well, can I say even better than ever ? The multitude of musical changes is what sets this album apart from most other black gothic metal releases, along with the use of the keyboards as yet another guitar and the great dynamic drumming that sees the band injecting a bit more aggression into their symphonic metal approach.

By the way, they got rid of their former female vocalist just after the recording of the previous album Profoundemonium and thus this is the first album with their new female vocalist who is just outstanding (the opera-like female singing on Bloodred Trance is just awesome). Where do all the Norwegian bands find all of their female opera-like singers ? Do they clone them or whatever ? Or is Norway gifted in whatsoever way ?

Although I am not very familiar with Faith No More, their Caffeine cover doesn’t sound like Faith No More sounded 10 years ago. Trail Of Tears successfully manages to fully appropriate this song that, had I been more familiar with Faith No More, I wouldn’t have been able to recognize it as of one of their songs.

This album stands out as one of the finest metal releases of this year in it's genre. Do I need to say that it was recorded at Sound Suite Studio in France and that Terje Refsnes has outdone himself once again ? Anyway, it might appear to some that I repeat myself over and over again when it comes to reviewing black gothic metal bands, but it’s again a must for all those out there who are into this kind of music. My kind of music.