A Whisper Of Dew

Those gothic rockers from Italy really deserved more than a low 30 in Metal Reviews. Their first album Fairy Tales From Hell’s Caves was to me quite a good debut although it suffered from some youthful indiscretions. I admit this first album was not entirely metal influenced and might have turned off some of my metal brothers. The band indeed wandered a little from the metal subject on their first album, but nowadays lots of metal bands tend to blend their music with lots of different influences and I definitely think that to come up with something innovative, a band has to blend their music with lots of influences and sounds. For instance, what would be Hollenthon’s music be without their open mindedness and their constant search for new sounds ?

Mandragora Sceams returns with a brand new album based on a vampyric concept written by Spanish author Julio Angel Olivares Merino. After Bram Stocker, Anne Rice and lots of other writers, it seems like everyone wants to come up with its own interpretation of the myth of the blood suckers. So do the metal bands because after Cradle Of Filth with Cruelty And The Beast, Siebenbürgen with Delictum to name but a few, Mandragora Scream decided to focus their sophomore effort on vampire stories too. Of course for those who don’t speak English, music only matters and music-wise, the band developed their skills in between their two releases. The band focuses still mainly on the musical atmospheres creating some wonderful musical odysseys, but this time the album is more guitar driven and thus metal orientated. After an intro à la Enigma and some Elfic spoken words taken from Peter Jackson’s Fellowship Of The Ring, the band invites the listener to follow them on their musical journey with their mellow enchanted melodies. This album sounds a like a great soundtrack as if the auditor was carried through a movie. The band added a female opera singer with haunting vocal lines to make the songs more interesting and the result is indeed more than just interesting or peculiar. The result is original and entertaining. Of course not everything is equal in quality and the band has to re-examine its copy on some of their songs, but in overall they have done an excellent job and if you are a little bit of an open minded metal freak, you will enjoy their sophomore album.

This album is quite long and many of you might not be as enthusiastic as I am after just one or two listens, but give it a few more spins and you will see or hear that this album has a lot to offer and even some of your friends might enjoy it.