Perdition Calls

This is Tales of Dark’s second album, three years after the pretty successful debut "Fragile monuments"; an album I definitely enjoyed. It displayed potent melodic doom/death with just a hint of gothic influences, so I was looking forward to hearing "Perdition calls". Something evident right from the get go is the development and change in the band’s sound, as they’ve gone for more melody and taken on some more experimental vibes.

It’s not the same amount of heaviness throughout this album in comparison to its predecessor, although it of course has its moments. We’re still talking about doom/death, but with more emphasis on gothic flair. The clean male vocals definitely take the forefront, and he has a fairly strong, deep voice, occasionally switching to growls. But the goth tendencies feels very in your face when the beautiful female voice sets in. It can become a wee bit too melodic for my taste, but a track like "Sounds of the ravage" implements all of their versatility to perfection. The magnificent melodic riffing creates a heavy base structure as the keyboard lurks behind it, enhancing the melody, and the drumming has a sense of flair to it and all three sets of vocal styles complement each other in a great way. As they move on to a section of clean guitars, and with the female vocals subtlety haunting the sound, we’re offered a break before the true wickedness of the riffing and growling puts an end to the song. This is where I find Tales of Dark to be of their best behavior.

Not saying the following track "Unassemble" isn’t great, ‘cause it is; following a somewhat similar recipe in song structure and even with a great melodic guitar solo. And as "The crown of venomous silence" (a terrific song, I might add) commence a sense of mystery comes in play as the absolutely marvelous bass play takes the lead. All tracks have something absolutely great about them, but overall it’s become just a bit too melodic. They do their thing excellently; it’s just my own stubborn mind who can’t handle such vast amounts of melody. But with the addition of the more atmospheric landscapes and experimental vibes rearing its head every now and then the band has moved on from sounding like another follower of My Dying Bride and have taken a step towards making their own mark on the scene.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net