Artist: Lyriel
Title: Skin And Bones
Genre: Gothic Metal
Release Date: 26th September 2014
Label: AFM Records
Album Review
‘Skin And Bones’ is LYRIEL’s (a German band founded in 2003) fifth album. Whilst its predecessor ‘Leverage’ steered into a lot of folk vibes and it created a good contrast with the Goth Metal on the other side, this album the Folk is making appearances to spice it up more than contrast it. It’s actually very welcomed when the Folk side comes out like that, so as to pick an example - in ‘Black And White’, and (I’m guessing) Oliver Thierjung throws a bit of Death Metal vocals there - good move.
Now let’s get on with the first and only criticism of the album: it’s really tedious when bands stake a claim to originality with ‘their music is not easy to label’ adorning their promos or social site descriptions, surely even if written by minions the bands have some control over that. How many bands can claim to be standing out of the crowd when most of them get described like that? Cry wolf comes to mind. Cue: actually the truly original bands never need to do that. You can mix folk (that is done by Gothic Metal bands too) into this and it’s still female-fronted Gothic Metal that is typical and totally not surprising, it’s not a heretic against the bulwarks of the Gothic Metal.
It’s not always a bad thing if you sound like the typical band of the genre if you play it well and with enough panache and passion and it reflects a bit of your unique personality and/or vision, all of these points are satisfied with LYRIEL. They’re a great band and they don’t need this ‘oh we’re so original’ selling point. The vocals are something to be enjoyed about this, and also the chemistry of the band is commendable, the songs are varied and present a wonderful sonic picture as a whole. It’s a truly good album.
Tracklist
01. Numbers
02. Falling Skies
03. Skin And Bones
04. Black And White
05. Days Had Just Begun
06. Your Eyes
07. Dust To Dust
08. Der Weg
09. Astray
10. Worth The Fight
11. Running In Our Blood
12. Dream Within A Dream
13. Black And White (Second Skin Version)
Line-up
Jessica Thierjung - vocals
Oliver Thierjung - bass, back. vocals
Linda Laukamp - cello, back. Vocals
Tim Sonnenstuhl - guitar
Markus Fidorra - drums, percussion
Joon Laukamp - violin
Websites
www.lyriel.net / https://www.facebook.com/lyrielofficial
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10
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