Who needs artwork when you have two fair maidens in the band? If the saying ‘sex sells’ is really true then this will be flying off the shelves! The two ladies I’m referring to who you will find adorning the cover is vocalist Carmen Elise Espenæs and bassist Birgit Öllbrunner. You could have the rest of the band on there but then I don’t think pictures of hairy blokes hold quite the same appeal to a predominantly male market.
The vocals of Carmen Elise have a beguiling quality about them, as her cherubic wispy wail reaches into her soprano register without going overboard on the operatics, while descending into a lower register where she puts forward an element of darkness with an eccentricity that occasionally brings to mind Agnete Kirkevaag (Madder Mortem). Her silky vocals add a glowing blanket of warmth to the cold atmosphere on tracks like ‘Skogens Lengsel’ which contains some fast drumming and melodic riffing, while ‘Open Your Eyes’ is built up with some sorrow tinged guitar melodies which is swathed in an ethereal aura aided by the subtle keyboard that entwines itself around the melody. I find myself thinking of Amorphis and even for a brief moment Opeth in the fragile acoustic melody on ‘Wintertimes’ as Carmen Elise whispers delicately trying not to disturb the music, until it breaks out into an orchestral wave.
Epic soundscapes play against the passages of desolation, which adds plenty of dynamics without ever sounding too pompous. The atmospherics of ‘Konkylie’ are suddenly uprooted as a violent hammering of the keyboard enters the mix creating a slightly eerie, histrionic heaviness before being rounded off with an emotive violin outro.
This is an album that’s tinged with both beauty and sadness. It’s haunting and yet heavy offering a splash of tenderness where it’s needed. It’s stylish and slick, the keyboards aren’t too overpowering, nor is anything too over the top. This is a pleasant and interesting album that occasionally has me wanting to label them as a darker version of Leaves Eyes. Good stuff.
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