From Ashes & Dust

For anyone familiar with the three first albums of the Slovakian band, the most striking element of this fourth release may be the production. While older Galadriel material wasn’t really raw by any mean, it nonetheless always seemed to be wrapped in a weird, misty atmosphere, every instrument sounding more or less muffled while keyboards filled the whole background. Now it’s quite surprising to hear a Galadriel release with crystal-clear production, sharp drums and audible bass. I won’t say it’s a good or bad thing, but that alone obviously makes this album sounding different.

Indeed, this isn’t the only novelty element which distinguishes From Ashes and Dust from its predecessors. Albums until Oblivion mostly consisted in doom metal with gothic elements, while this is gothic metal with very few doom elements. What has nothing to do with a hypothetical predominance of female vocals, even if Sona Kozakova is now equally sharing the vocals duties with growler, bassist and band’s mastermind Dodo Datel. After all, lots of gothic metal acts don’t even use a female vocalist. But the band has almost dropped creeping doom riffs and complex structures, while most of the tracks here are mid-tempo with little to no change in pace or rhythm. What doesn’t mean they’re calibrated radio tunes either, but it’s now possible to distinguish verses or choruses, while it was a pretty hard challenge on previous releases.

Even if there are slower songs, like the long Strong One Against the Storm or The Remembrance, they’re far closer to slow gothic metal than actual doom metal. For this reason they may be the less interesting tracks, ending up being a tad boring and whiny. And seriously, did we really need this clichéd break of croaking ravens in Strong One...?

However, even if this album sounds different, it’s quite a logical evolution. From Empire of Emptiness to Oblivion Galadriel albums had become more and more gothic oriented, with more and more focus on dark atmospheres and extensive use of keyboards. These keyboards which may make this band so hateful to some – of course, they’re still here. They aren’t more predominant than on Oblivion though, but if they’d been more predominant than on Oblivion that would have meant the band had engaged on a somehow slippery slope, what isn’t the case. The nature of keyboard accompaniment has also changed a bit, sounding less synthetic, more orchestral – you know, the typical organ or violin sound. The band might even use genuine violins sometimes, but I won’t swear anything. Eventually some tracks especially in the second half of the album are dusted with electronics, which are scarce enough to remain tolerable, but don’t really add anything to the music. Sorry, but not anyone can record Dark Tranquillity’s Haven.

Large parts are devoted to whispered/ muttered parts, another gothic element which was already present on previous albums, but to a far lesser extent. Once again the guys (and the chick) didn’t bring anything new, they just took it a step further, so it’s not really disconcerting. Furthermore even if the band has abandoned too intricate patterns, that doesn’t imply it’s ran out of imagination either. Proofs are those medieval melodies on A Horned Man, one of the shortest, but best tunes here, the lively instrumental 2848 or, as simple as it may sound, the fact that every track still sounds different.

And coming to the amateurish-sounding, butchered cover of Blind Guardian’s Bard Song (second part “The Hobbit”, less famous than the first part “In the Forest”), let’s just ignore it and look somewhere else – after all it’s only a bonus originally destined to figure on a tribute compilation. I don’t know who the fuck ever thought female vocals, growls and atmospheric keyboards could fit on a BG song, but of course they can’t a single bit.

So yes, it’s still Galadriel. And it’s good, even if I’d eventually place it a small step below their more doom-related material, but it’s only a matter of personal taste.

Highlights: From Ashes and Dust, Dark Erotica, A Horned Man, 2848