My Album of The Month (February-March 2012)

Artist: My Dying Bride
Album: 34.788...% Complete
Year: 1998
In 1998, the band switched to a more experimental/gothic sound. 34.788...% distances from traditional My Dying Bride. Initially I didn't enjoy the album. Little by little some tracks grew in me.  The "The Whore, The Cook and The Mother " is the standout. I can consider this as a concept album, dealing with known MDB issues like love, sex, drugs and innocence. with solid composure and a genuine sound exploration.

My Album Of The Month (January 2012)

Artist/Band: The Foreshadowing
Album: Oionos
Year: 2010

Etymology: Oionos means vulture or bird of prey in greek mythology.  
The gothic/doom metal band hailing from lazio. Oionos is their second album and i found it quite accidentally. It's very well composed. The good production quality is the first point: vocals, guitar riffs, keyboard sound are all well delivered to the audience with high resolution. The album follows a certain theme in almost all tracks. The horror of war, inhumanity, immorality is vividly noticeable; as the title resembles the concept of apocalypse rules the atmosphere. It never gets boring with variable structure of melodies and orchestration. The metaphorical closing track contains historical part of Robert Oppenheimer's speech remarked after detonation of first atomic bomb; words extracted from Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds". 
Guitar solos and vocals which are entirely clean, are so catchy. My favorite tracks are: Fallen Reign, Revelation 3:11, Lost humanity and the title track Oionos. 

Some New Stuff

I added 4 new albums to my music archive:
Canaan : A Calling To Weakness 2002
Evadne : The 13th Condition 2007
Orestea : Love Lines and Blood Ties 2010
Future of Forrestery : Travel III EP 2010

My Album of The Month(June)

Album: Ashes 
Year: 2005
Artist: Trstania

Ashes is the  4th full-length album of Tristania.
So impressive mix of soprano angelic and harsh death vocals by norwegian gothic metal band.
I highly enjoyed Ashes and i've been intermittently listening to it for about 3 years now.
I can  clearly remember the first hit came from "Cure"(4th Track) beautiful voice of Vibeke and wise poetic content of the song still haunts my memory and is undoubtedly one of the highlights of this album.
Then the "Shadowman" caught my eyes;once again Vibeke Sten's beauty-type vocals as the entering of the songs plays a dominant role.The song is all about restless mind struggling with the bizarre state of wakefullness.
Little by little as i listened to Ashes more carefully putting the mechanical aspect of Tristania music on my microscope;i found the whole album composed and mixed in a handy manner;no need to mention the professional production helped the sound keep its fresh and sharp resonance .
As i talked and praised Stene's pure beauty vocals; i think it's not fair to underrate Beast vocals of this album;
Tristania introduced Kjetil Ingebrethsen on harsh vocals;his performance is not far from excellent.
Lyrical themes are mainly focused on inner conflict and personally i find some parts rather hard to decipher.
Overall it is high quality 42 minutes of Gothic Metal with composure and solid structure meets the highest standard of the genre.


Pedram July 2010

Cure

In your web
The threads entangle
Your prey is dead
Dyed in silence.

I will forever stay with you
At your feet I will kneel
At your will

Dead silent
When I move, I am moved by you
When you rule, all is ruled by you
In your world, there is only you
In my world, there is only you

In your web
The threads entangle
At your will
Dead silent

Your words are shivers down my spine
I’m numb and shapeless, in your web, in your web
My blood runs slow and red like wine
The past is shattered, forever

I serve your will, for I have been bruised and battered
And covered 
I serve your will, for I have been ordinated your lover.




Tristania
image : Vibeke Stene

Peter Steele Died

Shocking news ;Peter Steele lead singer and bassist of Brooklyn based gothic metal band died of heart failure at 48.

The following is an interview Star-Ledger's Lisa Rose had with the musician on November 2000

The power of Negative thinking Don't be fooled by the frowns, black-on-black garb and soul-wracking lyrics, there is a lighter side to Type O Negative. Lead singer-bassist Peter Steele feels most listeners miss the dust-dry humor behind the somber image.

"People don't get the joke, which is that we think we're the joke," said Steele, 38, on the phone from a Cleveland tour stop.

The Brooklyn metal act's just-released career retrospective disc, "The Least Worst of Type O Negative," celebrates a decade of sarcasm. The opening track is 39 seconds of quiet titled "The Misinterpretation of Silence and It's Disastrous Consequences (Wombs and Tombs Mix)."

"Everyone is doing these tribute albums so we decided to do a Type O Negative tribute album - by Type O Negative," said Steele, a Playgirl model and former N.Y.C. sanitation worker.

The record includes alt-radio hits "Christian Woman" and "Black No. 1," as well as anti-anthems like "Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity." While their 2 rpm rendition of Seals & Croft's "Summer Breeze" isn't included on the comp, there is "Hey Pete," a steele-centric twist on the classic rock standard "Hey Joe." They do Black Sabbath's "Black Sabbath," as told from Satan's point of view.

Live, the band is focusing on material from their 1999 "World Coming Down" album. The sound - lush keyboards, Texas chainsaw guitars and Steele's Outer Borough baritone - is vintage Type O. But the words are something of a departure, mourning late relatives rather than dead relationships and long-lost Goth chicks.

"I have to disassociate myself from what (the songs are) about so I don't get too depressed and crack up on stage," said Steele. "When I wrote songs like 'Everyone I Love is Dead,' I never thought about how I was going to execute them live."

Steele, who credits Black Sabbath and the Beatles as key inspirations, recently co-wrote the song "Just Say No To Love" with Tony Iommi for the Black Sabbath guitarist's solo record.

"I felt like a big kid," said Steele. "To be writing music with him, I was awestruck. I was stuttering. I've loved Sabbath since I was 15. I like that slow, heavy sound. Grinding, churning stuff. Ozzy (Osbourne) sounded like the ultimate outcast and I didn't fit in too well in high school with the nerds, the jocks or the cool jeans."

The singer lambastes rap-metal and said his record collection pauses at the mid-1980's.

"I think all recent music sucks, and that includes Type O Negative," Steele deadpanned.

Momentary Eclipse of Hope

I saw you crowned as sun

I touched your burning hand

And looked at the sky

Towards your greedy shine

I thought you were a god

On the solar throne

But you have just burned my eyes

I worship your gilded sky

Where the clouds in grief are crying

Blood and the rain on my hands

On my blind eyes

Lakes sacrifice their silent waters

To glorify your beauty

In my mouth taste of blood

A taste of godless pain

Are you a God,are you human suffering

That brings us the pain?

In gardens of his promised paradise

We are desperately searching for immortality

Prisoners of our blindness

My mouth is full of blood

Iam swallowing desperation with

Holy forgiveness

I can't stand this pain

I am crying my eyes on my hands

Haunted

[Verse 1]
Dias enteros caminando en silencio.
Apuro mis pasos para dejar todo atrás;
Busco en la soledad el espacio para olvidar esa voz que me atormenta.
[English translation:
Entire days I spend walking in silence.
I hurry my steps to leave everything behind;
In solitude I search for a space to forget that voice that haunts me.]


I live in fear when the shadows reappear,
Unleashing all their might.
I never thought I'd face the demons on my own.
Make it stop! Haunted, hunted.

[Verse 2]
Un suspiro que penetra mi alma,
Un pensamiento constante e hiriente.
Sé que estás ahi, aunque no puedo verte,
Nunca he podido escapar del yugo de tus ojos.

[English translation:
A whisper that digs into my soul,
A constant and upsetting thought.
I know you're there, even though I can't see you,
I was never able to escape from your cruel eyes.]



[Verse 3]
With every breathe I take,
My heart beats faster.
No matter how hard I try to unwind,
Tears keep falling from my eyes.
Haunted, hunted, I'm down on my knees;
Forever I'll mourn the loss of my innocence.

Stream of Passion

pic : Marcela Bovio