Darkyra Black
Dragon Tears

“Mystery lady Darkyra Black, a new voice within the realm of female fronted metal. Her music is Dark, Passionate and Edgy.” That is the words of the PR-people, and this is the debut album of Darkyra Black called Dragon Tears which is a concept album. A geisha like gothic tale that ends like it always does in the metal world: in fire or at least in tragedy. Nice looking cover artwork that reminds of the front person, the title is a bit dull I think but maybe it implies something to the story.

So, what about this mystery girl then? Well, she is from Australia and she looks like the girl on the cover. This is the debut of this band and it sees a number of competent contributors, and words like to not being a carbon copy of things like Nightwish and all of that is what they describe it like. That all sounds well and good but this has been said over and over again and as a woman I recently interviewed once said, talk is cheap so it is easy to swing superlatives back and forth but what about it then? how does it really stand up to my critical ears?

Well, it has a familiar sound yet it differs from what most of the copy-paste bands tend to do. Darkyra’s voice is one of variation and passion, it is the biggest reason for why this band stands a bit apart from most new bands popping up in this genre. Gothic and melodic, female fronted is what it is. Excellent production, very epic sound. Like a novel told in musical form. Impressive soundscapes and all of that. The variation works out quite alright as well, the story is however in twelve chapters over almost 70 minutes which could be seen as a tad on the long side. It all ends with a narrative, Dragon Eyes Story which is haunting and interesting.

I like the end but I don’t think an album should end with such a long narrative, it breaks the flow a little bit. I also think that the playing time is the biggest problem of this album, it is difficult to stay interested for more than an hour of music. Even though the music is great I find it lacking the edge that will keep me interested for the entire playing time. Don’t get me wrong now, I like the album as it is strong, exciting, epic and more or less wonderful in parts. Darkyras voice is brilliant in singing and narrating, I just think this album could have been better. It feels like this band doesn’t quite live up to its potential, they are still very good.

What we have here is a solid album with some strong tracks like the opener Madoka’s Lament which is interesting and a great opener, then we have my favourite track which is Cold Cold Stone which is a very memorable track. So all in all I am very favourable towards this album and would like to recommend it to anyone of you who likes female fronted metal.

HHHHHHH