Darkwoods My Betrothedīs third album was a leap from more Norwegian-influenced sound to heavy but raw, more metal sound. I donīt see this as the band "selling out" anyways, but just as a more listening-friendly album.

While the sound is more produced (to some extenct), the music is still cold (an somewhat echoey) and base more on guitar textures than riffs. Tuomas Holopainenīs (of Nightwish fame) synthwork brings more dramatic feeling into the songs whenever needed. They are better than average horror synths and fit in very well sometimes, adapting lyrics. The music is mostly mid-paced, with a lot of double bass drum adding heaviness. The song material vary from average to good, but still the songs are too samey. The best way to reach the atmosphere is with headphones and reading the lyrics at the same time. This same rule goes with most of dark metal, anyways...

About lyrical themes, then. All the lyrics was written by ex-member Hexenmeister (left to Wizzard). Themes follow closely the title of the album. The first song is based on a true story of a trial and execution of suspected witches. The lyrics are far more interesting, in my opinion, than most of satanic dark/black metal lyrics, even though satanism is part of these, too. They are clearly written by non-English person, but in their simplicity, they are tell the tales. Vocals are blackish croaking, and I feel they could be more varied. Juha Vuormaīs great cover painting deserves a mention.

This could interest anyone from King Diamond fans (especially 'The Eye' (1990)) to dark metal maniacs to black metal hordes. Try it, if you are one of these.

Reviewed by Lane - 09.12.2002

Archaic Metallurgy (website)

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