Seasons

After beeing a long time listener to the old Evereve stuff and saw that even the excellent Stormbirds album got a review, i decided to write one for this masterpiece. Some people only know the new Evereve and i think the old albums are just too good to get lost in the swamp of mediocre Gothic/Doom Bands that were around in the past and also today. A good example to describe what this album is about is the first song: Prologue: The Bride wears black. The song starts with a dark mysterious keyboard intro and impulsive drumming and then Tom starts singing with his great voice... lamenting, tragic but beautiful. In the beginning it keeps up with the temper of the song and evolves to a whispering, haunting voice and on the peek of the song supported by heavy guitars and strange keyboard tunes to harsh and stunning grunts and screams. After this peek the song came back to the mood of the dark beginning end ends up with some peculiar keyboard/guitar melodies which make a good ending which leaves the listener in curious expectations.

But the guitarists and the keyboarder aren't inferior to his verious vocals. The effects that are used are sometimes strange but always fitting to the song. Sometimes in dark and cryptic intros like in "The Dancer under a summer sky" or in "A winternight depression" we're the guitars seem to wail together with Toms awesome voice. In every song are some variations with all of the instruments. "Untergehen und Auferstehen" for example has some good, melodic basslines and also later a great solo when the mood of the song changes from forlorn and depressive to a strange, unfulfilled aspiration."Autumn Leaves" is one of the darkest songs i know and a true doom-anthem. When i listen to it it's like i experience a sorrowful funeral in desperation and solitude... The development of the songs is always very well elaborated. Sometimes the voice, sometimes the keyboard, guitars or even the bass are taking the lead in a famous, obscure interaction of alltogether.

The Lyrics are always depressive and forlorn, full of unfullfilled desires and visions about death. They're very well written, free from cliches, truly dark, sad and poetic. They fit perfect to Tom's voice which brings every mood the writer intended straight to the mind and feelings of the listener who must be affected by them, except he's some creature without any feelings or a stone...

I can't pick a favorite song from this album. It's an concept album and all songs are a perfect match to the following ones which peeks in "A winternight depression" , one of the saddest songs i ever heard in my live...if you're into dark, depressive music, awesome vocals and some great mix of Doom/Gothic and Black Metal you MUST(!) own this album and i'm sure you share my feelings about this masterpiece...