|
Silent Stream Of Godless Elegy is a solid value in the Czech metal
scene. Between 1996 and 2000 the band released four albums, doom
metal in the vein of My Dying Bride and Anathema, but enriched with
ethnic elements. After they had won the Czech Grammy Award in the
category ‘hard ‘n’ heavy’ for the album ‘Themes’ (2000), a silence
fell around the band. Many line-up changes retarded the development
process and in the end only guitarist/componist Radek Hajda remained
from the original formation. A reborn band entered the studio in
2004 to record all their meanwhile written creations. The result is
fuss-making and the production better than ever. An authentic
Moravian ensemble contributed to the album and it was produced by
Tomas Kocko, a famous name in Moravian folkloristic circles. That is
why ‘Relic Dances’ has become an unique album where traditional
music goes hand in hand with the heavy characteristics of doom
metal. Doom as well as Moravian music have a firm portion of
melancholy in themselves, so both extremes lend themselves to a
harmonious synthesis. Yet SSOGE removes the boundaries of the genre
with this album.
With
‘Look’ the tone is set what we can expect of this album. A constant
violin play that, except for sadness, expresses the memory of primal
inspiration My Dying Bride, rough growls from vocalist Pavel in
contrast with those civilized, lovely vocals of Hanka and a the
heavy base of a doom band. All this may suddenly twist to pure
ethnic sounds when the ‘dulcimer ensemble Radosov’ gets free run.
But these different atmospheres are fluently merged to a remarkable
totality.
Cello and violin have a crucial role in all of the songs, tracks
such as ‘To Face The End’ and ‘I Would Dance’ show some incidental
ethnic elements, while the Moravian, slightly Oriental sounds are in
the majority on the latter part of the album. A fine example of how
dark doom metal fits well with sad ethnic chants is the almost eight
minutes long track ‘Lonely’. More folkloric is the intro of ‘You
Loved The Only Blood’ and the instrumental ‘Gigula’, one will be
surprised that the use of foreign instruments can lead to this.
Likewise ‘Trinity’ has this light exotic touch against them sturdy
riffs and grunts against very catchy vocals of Hanka. A top class
song! Hanka does the majority of the vocals, but the grunts are just
that extra. ‘Relic Dances’ is a very original album that will
attract the attention between so many releases. Don’t miss the band
when they come back for concerts in the Netherlands and Belgium in
March! |
|
Pavel Hrncir: vocals
Hanka Nogolovà: vocals
Michal Sykora: cello
Petra Novackova: violin
Radek Hajda: guitars
Dusan Fojtasek: bass
Michal Rak: drums
Guests
Tomas Kocko: vocals, acoustic guitar, trombita, darbouka
Radosov Music Ensemble:
Radim Havlicek: 1st violin
Jiri Matela: 2nd violin
Petr Vyoral: clarinet, flutes
Petr Svetlik: dulcimer
Cenek Riha: viola
Roman
Plasiryba: double bass |
