After a romantic intro starts the electro
dark metal substained by a drum machine with powerful sounds (just listen
to the bass beats at the end of "Per Aspera and Astra"),
and enriched by piano interventions, 2 guitars, violins and one viola.
All the female vocals are gentle and all the male ones clean, even if
sometimes whispered; occasionally we can also meet some gregorian chants;
the good thing is that the band has smartly avoided the stereotype 'male
death vocals vs. angelic female vocals', and only in "Stasi"
one can meet threatening vocals; all of the a.m. elements contribute
to create a withered feeling, embellished by a professional recording
effected at the Gulp! studios with producer Marco Calliari, known for
his job with Italian boring pop band Subsonica. This CD sounds void
of doom if compared to the previous "Fiaba Lacrimevole - Like
a Red Bleeding Rose in a Glacial Desert" dated 1998; of My
Dying Bride they just have the same guitar sounds; maybe the band Dismal
come closer to is Enid, though in a more decadent way, or early Mortiis
in songs like "Chemical Nature of Rubedo".
Elegant, and able to melt voices and keyboards with stunning results,
Dismal may benefit by adding their compositions more variety at least,
since the sound appears static every now and then and there aren't enough
accelerations nor slowdowns, nevertheless on the whole it's not a bad
record; they just have to find the courage to dare more, as to aggressiveness
or speed changes, more precision and authority in some passages of the
male vocals, or the tracks will all look too similar to each other.
MARKUS GANZHERRLICH - 1/6/03
