Lorelei
Тени Октября (Shadows Of October)

It is claimed that the second album by Russian band Lorelei has been long awaited, I guess they mean since the debut album was released in 2013. This new album has a nice cover and it is called Shadows of October, perhaps due to the feeling of autumn it delivers. It is also claimed that they have gone a bit away from the more gothic doom metal their first album offered, with less female vocals and more growls they are going more into the doom death metal territory. They are said to offer crystal keys, heavy guitars and melodicness – and they sing in Russian.

Doomy death metal is probably the best way to describe it, vocals in Russian, mostly growled vocals but some female vocals as well. Perhaps the latter was added to make the album sound more dynamic, but it doesn’t quite succeed as I think the album suffers slightly from lack of variation. The production is okay for what it is, perhaps a bit of a throwback in time but still relatively modern. Ten tracks and forty-five minutes of playing time is what is being offered by this band on this album, ten tracks of grey autumn mode – a dark and depressive album is a way to describe this album.

A good dark mood is what they offer; I think that it is a pretty good album. The songs are rather good and as doomy death metal goes this has to be considered a strong album. Sure it could have more depth, they could have used the female vocals more and in that way created a more dynamic soundscape and an album that sounded a bit less ordinary than this one. Russian is a rather ugly language but it works okay to convey the grey mood of autumn, less so conveying music one really wants to listen to.

In the end I have to conclude that despite weaknesses and the ugly language it is a pretty good album to listen to and I think that those enjoying the doomy death metal will enjoy it even more. So if you think that the grey moods of October sounds exciting it could be a pretty good choice to check out this album, it even has a nice artwork.

HHHHHHH