Dancing Under Glass

Entwined's one and only album 'Dancing under Glass' became my another favourite English metal album right after I bought it back in 1998. I wrote a review about it, too, but it was so bad I must write a new one.

'Dancing under Glass' still sounds good, which is kind of a surprise after all these years. See, Entwined didn't invent metal, they just got influenced by various thing they mixed in ther music. Succesfully. Gothic metal doesn't do much to me nowadays, but of course all the classic albums still rule. "Classic British gothic metal" reads on the sticker on the cover and basically, it's quite well put. Mixture of classic British gothic metal in vein of My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost and The Blood Divine, and British sounding heavy metal with some 'Master of Puppets' era (1986) Metallica style riffing is pretty damned good, presenting loads of catchy metal riffs and leads. This is heavy when compared to gothic "metal" of today, and thanks for that goes to rhythm section, too. The songs are nicely crafted, offering enough of variety. There are not much softer parts, which I think is a good thing. Organic production by Simon Efemey is okay, but still a bit blurred.

Keyboards play important part. At least now they sound general gothic stuff done to death, be it eerie, epic or piano work. At their best they make the band sound really epic. However, they do not ruin much in my opinion, but I seriously believe that Entwined would have worked better as 2 guitars/bass/drums band. At least when hearing the ballsless and powerless vocals. No skill to sing and most of time off-key, the vocals are bad (sounding like a worse of ex-Anathema / The Blood Divine vocalist Darren White). Okay, the voice isn't the loudest thing in the mix, which was a wise decision to make. Calmer clean voice is a tad better than awful rougher ones. Which aren't rough at all, to tell the truth. A few growled vocals show, that using growl would have been the ideal style here. Love themed lyrics are lame, but what to expect from such?

I considered hard, whether should I grant 'Dancing under Glass' a honorary mention or no. My choice is no, because of the bad vocals. I remember I got over them after a few spins and found out how good the songs are. And the songs are still as good as back in 1998. Almost classy stuff, this.

(originally reviewed for ArchaicMetallurgy.com in 2005)

This album is OK. It's got some substance on it. It features some great guitar work. The only thing is that the keyboards get really boring after a while. There are many flaws on this album.

One of the biggest flaws on this album are the vocals. The vocals are really awful on this album. The vocalist sounds really out key on this album. I also don't like the way the vocalist's vocals sound.

The keyboards are really monotonous. I hear the same keyboard sound on many tracks on this album. What's up with that? The keyboardist should of done much better. He's capable of doing good things.

The guitar on this album sounds pretty awful at times. The riffs sound really bland on the album. The guitar sounds extremely awful when single notes are played on it.

There's nothing really special on this album. I'm surprised that Entwined got signed onto Earache records. Where are they now? Too bad this is the only album Entwined released. They could of evolved into something really great. Maybe the vocalist would sound better on future releases. I don't know, judging from the way he sounds on here, I don't think he can sound any better.