Eclectika - Dazzling Dawn

Title: Dazzling Dawn
Artist: Eclectika
Genre: Experimental Metal / Black Metal
Release Day: 25th February 2010
Label: Asylum Ruins Records



Introduction

ECLECTIKA is a French experimental metal group that is in general heavily influenced by atmospheric black metal and also dark ambient stuff. The three-piece was founded in 2001 and consists of Aurélien Pers and Alexandra Lemoine (both on lead vocals) and Sébastien Regnier, who is responsible for all instruments and also provides further vocal work if needed. Until now, ECLECTIKA have released three discs; the demo ‘Funeral Victorious March’ in 2005, the first full-length album ‘The Last Blue Bird’ in 2007, and the new album ‘Dazzling Dawn’ which I will further elaborate on below.


Album Review

I must admit I had never heard of ECLECTIKA before and was actually quite surprised when I discovered that there was hardly any information to be found on this band in general. Their official homepage also doesn’t really give anything away and therefore I decided to just give the album a listen without having any first impressions about the band beforehand.

‘Dazzling Dawn’ starts out with a nicely atmospheric intro that has an epic feel to it and immediately reminded me of a movie soundtrack. However, after this short instrumental the album comes into full effect with the first real song that is also the title track. To my surprise, this first track turns out to be a total contrast to the seemingly beautiful intro - in fact it is a really fast-paced black metal track that is characterized by insane drum work, typical black metal vocals, a dusky mood, and a guitar solo. I have never really been into black metal, therefore it is always hard for me to get used to the vocals. What differentiates ECLECTIKA from typical black metal bands, though, is the interplay between the two different voices. In contrast to Pers’ screams, Alexandra sings in a high, operatic style that rather reminds of typical gothic or symphonic metal bands.

Throughout the album it becomes obvious that these vocal breaks are often rather strenuous and incoherent than enrichments for the songs, and in my opinion Alexandra often has problems to hit the notes, or her vocals just don’t fit at all. Another point of criticism is clearly the low production. While I think it is impressive and kind of cool when bands produce their albums themselves, the production quality of this album is simply too low for me and makes it hard to listen to, especially the guitars often sound like an indefinable mess or just don’t sound good, even in the solos, which aren’t too bad in general. Maybe the sound quality was also chosen intentionally (because it is not uncommon at all for black metal bands to go for a rather “harsh” and “rough” sound) but nevertheless it just doesn’t sound well in my ears. Another thing that this album is lacking is variation – at least in the (black) metal-influenced songs.

All of them kind of sound the same to me, have similar structures, and the two voices often don’t harmonize. The few good moments of this album reveal themselves in the threatening, dark intros, for example in the songs ‘There Is No Daylight’ or ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ that create a lot of atmosphere, or in the three instrumental songs ‘Experience 835’, ‘The Next Blue Exoplanet’ and ‘11 Corps Décharnés’, where the emphasis is put on creating certain vibes and pictures in the listener’s minds. To me, these instrumentals serve as quite nice breathers (even though some parts of them aren’t that exciting as well) in between all the “black metal” songs that don’t really fit my taste, as I said before.

All in all, I could definitely do without this album and the production makes everything even worse, but maybe some more open-minded black metal or dark ambient fans might dig this album or are able to deal with the oftentimes strange experiments that are being performed throughout this work.


Tracklist

01. The End
02. Dazzling Dawn
03. Sophist Revenge
04. Les Démons Obsédants Du Regret
05. There Is No Daylight In The Darkest Paradise
06. Experience 835
07. The Next Blue Exoplanet
08. Marble Altar
09. Stockholm Syndrome
10. 11 Corps Décharnés


Line-up

Alexandra Lemoine - Vocals
Aurélien Pers - Vocals
Sébastien Regnier - Vocals, Instruments


Website

http://www.eclectika.fr/ / http://www.myspace.com/thelastbluebird


Cover Picture




Rating

Music: 4
Sound: 3.5
Extras: -
Total: 3.75 /10


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