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Tystnaden - Sham Of Perfection 2006
Gothic Death Metal from Italy
Myspace
Band:Vocals: Laura De Luca (guest in Elvenking)
Vocals/Keys/Synths: Lorenzo Frascaroli
Guitar: Federico Grassi
Guitar: Cesare Codispoti
Bass: Artur Sahakjan (Akhtamar)
Drums: Alberto Iezzi (Samael Tears)
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Review
Tystnaden is Swedish for "the silence", but we are dealing here with an Italian band of the environs of Udine. That immediately made me think of Elvenking and there is a link indeed. Female singer Laura De Luca happened to be the one who did some guest vocals on the first Elvenking album 'Heathenreel'. Why a Swedish name for the band? That is because of their admiration for Swedish bands such as Dark Tranquillity and In Flames.
'Sham Of Perfection' is the first full length album of Tystnaden, in succession of the EP 'Fragments' of 2003. This EP was recorded in a familiar sounding studio, namely the Outer Sound studio in Rome and now that I have been busy writing about Novembre, I promptly remember that this is the studio of the members of Novembre. However this album is recorded at the New Sin studio (January 2005), after which the band signed a deal with Limb Music and now they are ready to conquer the world.
One should expect a lot of Gothenburg influences, but that is not the case. Tystnaden is much more another band in the gothic metal scene, with large amounts of female vocals and a refreshing grunt of keyboardist Lorenzo Frascaroli. They more than once reminded me of Sengir. I know, there are no grunts in Sengir, but Laura has a similar voice timbre as Ellen, clean and powerful and useful in every style. Some of the songs are a bit (too) light stuff, so that this album will appeal to a large number of people, but the compositions themselves are not that exceptional. Sometimes I lost my attention and this cannot be the purpose. In the song 'Rewards' we hear a beautiful guitar solo of guest musician Gianni Rojatti (Deep Forest with among others Greg Bissonnette). A meritorious debut album, which sounds a bit too mainstream for me, but hey, gothic fans, check it out. |
[video=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRnWgdZIskI&feature=related]
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On some songs they also add some genre-foreign instruments, mandolin, violin (or cello, hard to say), which is always a plus. The strongest tracks are opener "First Embrace", "Münchausen Syndrome", "The Foolish Plan", "The Joke" and "Pride Vs Intellect", with the rest not being fillers either, but very nicely flowing into your ear.
Surely not a milestone in Gothic Metal, but definitely a good and entertaining debut, which gives hopes that on a second album they won’t discover the electronics in favour of reducing the Metal, like so many genre colleagues… |
"Tystnaden" is Swedish for "the silence".
1. First Embrace 04:48
2. Munchausen Syndrome 04:18
3. Tystnaden 04:39
4. Metaphora 04:12
5. The Foolish Plan 04:33
6. Hamlet 04:53
7. The Joke 03:57
8. Rewards 04:52
9. The Vanishing 04:53
10. Pride vs Intellect 04:59
Total playing time: 46:04
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