Artist: Shadow Reborn
Title: Intricacies
Genre: Goth Metal
Release Date: 3rd April 2015
Label: Danse Macabre
Flash Review
“Baroque Goth Rock” from Florida? What clash of associations! Palms and FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM, Christopher Wren and snow-white beaches, sunburn and SISTERS... Okay, bloody prejudices and to be honest the six songs on SHADOW REBORN´s EP ‘Intricacies’ deal with nothing above literally. Okay there is that slight Lestat-feeling when you take a look at the four “vampires” resident in the south of the “Sunshine State”, like arisen from a Anne Rice screen adaption and the lyrics are crowded by darkness, demons, twilight and other suitable vocabulary too, but musically we move in distinctly tougher areas. Commonly called Goth-Metal their songs are a cleverly interwoven oil paintings made of sawing guitars, clubbing drums, pleasing harmonies and disconcerting single-string solos. It feels like a mixture of DIR EN GREY and THE 69 EYES, MOONSPELL and IRON MAIDEN. And somehow that´s the crux of the output. Too frequently and too arbitrary are the jumps from style to style, too pushy for letting atmospheres evolve. It gets arduously after a while, softens any perceptible structure and by that wearies your attention. That doesn´t mean that the musical texture isn´t interestingly arranged, it just feels like in quick motion, what makes it hard to tell the five songs (plus the introduction) apart in the end (supported by the ineffable guitar solos, which seem to lurk around every corner!).
Conclusion: A crumb of comfort is indeed the vocal performance of the undeads´ fugleman Shades, who growls and yells, croons and shouts with a decent variety and energy, counterbalancing the leggings-denim-references for some redeeming moments.
Rating: 5 / 10
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