Independent Release
Review by Tony Cannella
The Gothic/Doom Metal band Scandelion were formed around 2002 in Spain and released their full-length debut “The Pureheart’s Breed” in 2008. They then released a 5-song demo in 2009 and now this Spanish band returns with their new full-length “The Garden of Lies”. Scandelion features two lead vocalists in their ranks. First, Sonia Hernández provides some beautiful operatic style singing and keyboardist Jorge Afonso is there with his contrasting extreme metal, guttural approach. The vocals are split pretty evenly with perhaps Sonia getting a bit more of the spotlight. The intro “Genesis of Decadence” is a pretty cool way to kick things off and features a choir, as the intro reaches its apex, this leads us into “Fatal Beauty”. The band is comfortable playing a doomy style, but there are times when the music speeds up, like on part of “Ghost of Your Soul” and the brutal parts (The parts that Jorge sings) of “The Garden of Lies”. For the most part, “The Garden of Lies” doesn’t offer much in the way of variety, but it has tons of atmosphere, thanks to some cool orchestration and some top notch keyboard work by Jorge. At about 37-minutes long, “The Garden of Lies” is not a very long album and the songs range in the 3-5 range – which is also different from a lot of doom metal, which usually includes a lot of 7-8 minute epic style tracks. The music is at times melancholic and beautiful. The track that stood out the most for me was beautiful “Angelo Nero” which is sung in Spanish and features a clean male vocalist in a duet with Sonia, as the extreme male vocals join in later in the track. This is just an excellent track as the two vocalists work well together, and then the extreme vocals finishes things with authority. Other highlights include: “Apocalypse Flower”, “Butterfly Agony” and “Swan’s Lament”. Fans who enjoy Gothic/Doom with melody and atmosphere should definitely give this band a shot. With “The Garden of Lies”, Scandelion has released an album that I am sure will gain them some well deserved recognition in Gothic and Doom metal circles.
Rating – 73/100
Tracklist
- Genesis of Decadence
- Fatal Beauty
- Apocalypse Flower
- Sparkles
- Angelo Nero
- Butterfly Agony
- Swan’s Lament
- Ghost of Your Soul
- The Garden of Lies
Line Up
- Sonia Hernández – Voice
- Ancor Amador – Guitar
- Pedro Burgazzoli – Bass
- Jorge Afonso – Keyboards & Backing Vocals
- Borja Santana – Drums
Links
MySpace * ReverbNation * Facebook * Google Plus * Twitter * Site