Label : Orcynia Records
Review by Luisa Mercier
The singer Carline Van Roos is a very good artist, an artist able to put feelings in every project she is involved. Her fans will remember Aythis and Remembrance, two interesting projects and now it is impossible to ignore Lethian Dreams which have just released their second full-length, “Season of Raven Words”.
In this band, the French singer showcases all her dreamy side; the wall of riffs mixes with her angelic vocals creating a thin and intangible atmosphere. They reach their aim and succed in creating a record made of emotion, fragility, dream and quiet melancholy. I have to say that none of the songs is catchy or easy to grasp, so the albums may need a few spins before you can fully appreciate it. The music featured in “Season of Raven Words” is a quite pure gothic-doom with no hooks, no choruses easy to remember, there is just the typical doom slowed down tempo and sometimes some black metal/post-rock passages (as in “Dawn” and “Satyrs”). All of this is never exaggerated, never over the top; on the other hand it is very well balanced, elegant, well crafted, never leaving those compositional boundaries that they have set.
Gothic metal is passion for decadence, for rarified thoughts, gloomy atmospheres and this album offers all these charachteristics: it is like chasing something evanescent, like looking through fog that just let you glimpse the object we long for. I can tell you just one thing: “Season of Raven Words” has not filler songs, it is a solid release; it just need time to be completely understood. So just be patient and let yourself be taken on this moody trip.
Rating – 75/100
Tracklist
- Dawn
- Wandering
- See
- Raven
- White Gold
- Invisible
- Satyrs
- Roads
Line Up
- Carline Van Roos – Vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass & programming
- Matthieu Sachs – Acoustic guitars