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Album Review – Belle Morte / Crime of Passion (2021)

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Enjoy this stunning album of Gothic and Symphonic Metal made in Belarus with dark and progressive flavors and a beautiful, melancholic vibe.

3.5rating

belle-morte-crime-of-passion-2021Formed in 2015 in Minsk, the capital and the largest city of Belarus, the musical project that goes by the Stygian name of Belle Morte plays a fusion of Gothic and Symphonic Metal with dark and progressive flavors and a beautiful, melancholic vibe. Spearheaded by the talented and stylish vocalist Belle Morte, the project has just released their brand new opus entitled Crime of Passion, following up on their highly acclaimed 2018 debut EP Game On. Produced, mixed and mastered by Sergey Butovsky (who also plays bass and does backing vocals on the entire album), displaying a delicate artwork by Stefan Heilemann (Heilemania), and inspired by John Fowles’ novel The Collector, Crime of Passion tells a coherent story which started as an unhealthy obsession and stalking and resulted in murder, both from the side of the murderer and his victim, all beautifully and meticulously put together by Belle Morte and her bandmates Ilya Rogovoy and Ilya Petrashkevich on the guitars, Sergey Butovsky on bass, Maria Shumanskaya on keyboards and Rostislav Golubnichiy on drums in a way that will certainly please all fans of the genre.

Dark and melancholic sounds permeate the air in the cinematic intro Overture, preparing our hearts and souls for Who Are You, where Belle declaims the song’s poetic lyrics majestically (“You’re watching me, what do you see / I want to hide, but you’re behind / I try to run the hunt begun / Don’t cross this line, there’s no return”) while the band’s guitar duo slashes his stringed axe accompanied by the rumbling bass by Sergey; whereas investing in a more Gothic and modern sonority it’s time for the delicate If Only You Knew, featuring guest guitars by Artur Naumenko and displaying hints of Industrial Rock and Metal added to the band’s core essence. Artur keeps delivering his classic riffs in To Get Her, keeping the dark flames of Gothic and Symphonic Metal burning bright while Belle is again fantastic on vocals, resulting in a thrilling fusion of the music by Nightwish, Tristania and Lacrimosa, and leaning towards pure old school Symphonic Metal we’re treated to Beauty And The Beast, showcasing crushing beats, atmospheric passages and endless passion flowing from Belle’s distinguished voice supported by the guitars by Ilya Rogovoy and Ilya Petrashkevich.

My Little Demon brings forward another round of their cryptic words declaimed by Belle and Sergey (“Come to me, my little demon, stay with me until the dawn / I won’t lie to you, my darling, when you fall asleep I’ll run / I won’t lie to you, my darling, you will lose me with the sun”), with the guitars by Ilya Rogovoy and Ilya Petrashkevich adding a touch of evil to the overall musicality, which is also the case in Broken Things, presenting a pleasant sonority led by Belle and her whimsical vocals and with Sergey once again kicking ass with his groovy bass. Then a serene intro gradually grows in intensity, evolving into a dark and melancholic ballad entitled Beauty Meant To Kill where the acoustic guitars by Sergey generate the perfect ambience for Belle to shine on vocals once again; whereas enfolding piano notes will penetrate deep inside your mind in Lace, featuring guest guitars by Kirill Movshuk, sounding very orchestral at times and with Belle hypnotizing us all with her soulful vocals as usual. And lastly, featuring guest backing vocals by Alexandra Mantis and Katya Shtirts, My Legacy drinks form the same fountain as renowned bands the likes of Epica, Within Temptation and Nightwish, or in other words, it’s the perfect way to close the album in great fashion.

belle-morte-2021The gorgeous and mesmerizing music by Belle Morte in Crime of Passion can be appreciated in full on Spotify, but of course in order to show your true support to the band you should definitely purchase a copy of the album by clicking HERE or HERE, as well as from their own BandCamp page or from the Aural webstore, and if you want to know more about Belle Morte and listen to more of their classy metal music simply go to their official Facebook page, to Instagram, to VKontakte and to their YouTube channel. Crime of Passion is one of those albums that will drag you to darkness, take you to another world and captivate all your senses once and for all, just the way we like it in Gothic music, and let’s hope Belle Morte and her amazing crew can keep embellishing the airwaves with more releases like their excellent new album for all eternity.

Best moments of the album: Beauty And The Beast, My Little Demon and My Legacy.

Worst moments of the album: Broken Things.

Released in 2021 WormHoleDeath

Track listing     
1. Overture 1:38
2. Who Are You 3:48
3. If Only You Knew 4:35
4. To Get Her 5:11
5. Beauty And The Beast 3:43
6. My Little Demon 5:41
7. Broken Things 4:10
8. Beauty Meant To Kill 4:26
9. Lace 5:15
10. My Legacy 3:07

Bonus track
11. To Get Her (Acoustic version) 4:19

Band members
Belle Morte – vocals
Ilya Rogovoy – guitars on “Who Are You”, “Beauty And The Beast”, “My Little Demon”, “Broken Things” and “My Legacy”
Ilya Petrashkevich – guitars
Sergey Butovsky – bass, backing vocals, vocals on  “My Little Demon” and “To Get Her”, acoustic guitars on “Beauty Meant To Kill”
Maria Shumanskaya – keyboards
Rostislav Golubnichiy – drums

Guest musicians
Alexandra Mantis – backing vocals on “My Legacy”
Katya Shtirts – backing vocals on “My Legacy”
Kirill Movshuk – guitars on “Lace”
Artur Naumenko – guitars on “If Only You Knew” and “To Get Her”

Album Review – Epica / The Quantum Enigma (2014)

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The new album from Epica just corroborates how good Symphonic Metal from the Netherlands has been in recent years.

Rating4

coverIt definitely looks like whenever a Heavy Metal band from the Netherlands releases a new album, especially if it has female vocals, we can purchase their new material without even listening to it. All releases from bands from the “Land of Windmills” in the past few years have been simply amazing, with no exception, and that’s also valid for the excellent The Quantum Enigma, the sixth studio album by Dutch Symphonic Metal band Epica.

Although it’s the first with new bassist Rob van der Loo, who replaced Yves Huts in 2012, that didn’t hurt the overall quality of the album. Quite the contrary, the other members of the band have been together for some good years, which translates into cohesiveness and an outstanding flow of the music. Not only that, the addition of a chamber choir and some strings (violins, viola and celli), along with the excellent guest musicians Marcela Bovio (Stream of Passion) on backing vocals and Daniël de Jongh (Textures) as additional male vocals were extremely positive from a quality standpoint.

The Quantum Enigma starts with the beautiful symphonic intro Originem, tailored to create a special atmosphere for everything else to come and already introducing to us the choir, which will be a constant throughout the whole album. Also, I don’t need to say this track will be used as an intro to their upcoming live concerts, right? But it’s when the first actual song begins that we’re able to notice how grandiose the band wants its music to be in this album: The Second Stone is a great song with lots of Power Metal elements, Simone Simons’ unique voice sounding superb as usual, and the fast solos and harsh vocals complementing what might be considered the best track of the album by many fans.

The next track, The Essence of Silence, has that characteristic sonority from some old Epica songs without sounding repetitive, a beautiful chorus (“Retrieve your balance / Use your senses to observe / The essence of silence / Search for essence / Find the silence within you / The essence is…”), and all the extra strings fit perfectly with the musicality not only of this track but of the whole album. It’s a very good track but not really awesome, though, which is the case for the amazing Victims of Contingency, where its heavy riffs balance really well with the keyboards and orchestral parts. Moreover, the Death Metal punch found in this song blended with Simone’s lyrical voice is above the average, and add to that Mark Jansen and Isaac Delahaye doing an excellent job with their guitars and you have another memorable track in the album.

Perhaps the weakest track of all is the next one, Sense Without Sanity (The Impervious Code), which despite having a nice and smooth vocal intro, strong keyboard notes and a good balance of harsh and female vocals, ends up being a bit tiring, especially after the 4th minute,  losing all momentum gained. Unchain Utopia might not be a brilliant song, but it’s indeed better than the previous track and Simone’s performance once again gives it some extra energy; while The Fifth Guardian (Interlude), despite being just an instrumental bridge, is really well-crafted and perfect for energizing the listener for the following track, the excellent Chemical Insomnia. What an awesome Symphonic Metal tune! The music keeps growing and growing until it reaches a truly climatic ending, with all band members playing their parts beautifully, and also proving to us all a song doesn’t need to be absurdly long to be epic.

epicaReverence (Living in the Heart) seems to be the song chosen by Ariën van Weesenbeek to mercilessly smash his drums, with some excellent riffs, choir, and especially the quick but awesome keyboard solo adding a special touch to this sonic massacre. On the other hand, Omen (The Ghoulish Malady), with its piano intro and all orchestral parts, sounds too bland for an album so full of intense music and do not keep up with the other tracks.

The final part of The Quantum Enigma starts with the beautiful ballad Canvas of Life, where we can savor a great performance by Simone one more time. She simply steals the show here, mainly due to all the poetry in the lyrics (“The stains come alive where the paint has gone dry / You float above looking down reaching out to me / Depicting a beautiful scene that shapes divinity”) enhancing the emotion in her voice. Then comes Natural Corruption, another good track with all those Epica elements fans learned to enjoy, and The Quantum Enigma (Kingdom of Heaven Part II), an epic song with over 11 minutes with the orchestra and choir dominating the first part of the song. However, it then becomes a bit generic and, although it maintains a good rhythm, unfortunately it’s not enough for such a long song, making it a little tiresome in the end. The bottom line is, if you’re going to compose a long song make sure it has different “songs” inside of it, as for example the classics “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, from Iron Maiden, and “Halloween”, from Helloween, otherwise just keep it simple. As previously mentioned, a band can be epic without extending the length of a song too much, which Epica themselves did in this same album. It’s not that the song is not good, let’s say it’s exaggeratedly ambitious.

Anyway, add to this very good album some interesting bonus tracks (each version of the album has a different one) and its beautiful album art done by visual artist Stefan Heilemann, who has already worked with Epica in other opportunities and with many other famous artists and bands, and you have another high quality album worth buying and, of course, worth listening to many times. Because as I said, if it’s Symphonic Metal from the Netherlands, especially if it’s an album from Epica, just go for it without thinking twice.

Best moments of the album: The Second Stone, Victims of Contingency, Chemical Insomnia and Canvas of Life.

Worst moments of the album: Sense Without Sanity (The Impervious Code), Omen (The Ghoulish Malady) and The Quantum Enigma (Kingdom of Heaven Part II).

Released in 2014 Nuclear Blast

Track listing
1. Originem 2:11
2. The Second Stone 5:00
3. The Essence of Silence 4:47
4. Victims of Contingency 3:31
5. Sense Without Sanity (The Impervious Code) 7:42
6. Unchain Utopia 4:45
7. The Fifth Guardian (Interlude) 3:04
8. Chemical Insomnia 5:12
9. Reverence (Living in the Heart) 5:02
10. Omen (The Ghoulish Malady) 5:28
11. Canvas of Life 5:28
12. Natural Corruption 5:24
13. The Quantum Enigma (Kingdom of Heaven Part II) 11:53

Bonus tracks
14. In All Conscience (Digipack additional track) 5:04
15. Dreamscape (Earbook additional track) 4:59
16. Memento (Vinyl additional track)
17. Banish Your Illusion (iTunes additional track) 6:11
18. Mirage of Verity (Japanese additional track) 5:59

Band members
Simone Simons – lead vocals
Mark Jansen – rhythm guitar, harsh vocals
Isaac Delahaye – lead guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals
Rob van der Loo – bass guitar
Coen Janssen – keyboards, piano
Ariën van Weesenbeek – drums, harsh vocals

Guest musicians
Marcela Bovio – backing vocals
Daniël de Jongh – additional male vocals