Veil of secrets, Dead poetry

It seems that lately some of my favourite singers came out of the woods. First it was Roy Khan with Conception, now it’s finally Vibeke Stene’s turn. It’s been 14 years since her wonderful voice has graced our ears (if you don’t count the insipid Queen of broken hearts). The much touted God of atheists project turned out to be a mirage, but thankfully Veil of secrets appeared out of nowhere to ease our Vibeke withdrawal with Dead poetry. So let’s dissect it.

The last attempt is trailing and monotonous in the first part, but picks up once the violin appears and becomes a lovely mix between Therion and Saturnus. It’s too early to know, but this “it kind of sounds like” is going to become a leitmotif of the album.

Sear the Fallen is heavier, doomier and spiced up by Vibeke’s haunting quivers, while Remorseful heart reminds me a lot of The sins of thy beloved, with the interlacing between grunts, operatic vocals and the whining violin.

The lie of her prosperity passes by my ear, but Fey has an interesting juxtaposition between the bluntness of the instrumental and the delicacy of the vocals and it even reminisces of old Xandria at times.

Byrd has a lot more going on than you’d give it credit for at it’s 4.5 minutes, morphing from a slow settled doom song into a fast-paced, grunt driven ending.

Meson is rather generic for the most part, but it’s saved by its beautiful gut wrenching ending. Unfortunately this is an intensity and feeling that’s missing from the rest of the album and I really would have liked to hear more of that, because Dead poetry sounds well musically, but is a bit lifeless.

The record ends with Entirety, which is quite dull, especially after I was reminded what emotion sounds like.

So let’s talk about the real reason we’re all here, which is nostalgia. I mean Vibeke. She’s virtually unchanged, her sensual velvet voice displayed in all might and glory, but she also brings a nice lower register we haven’t heard from her before. In any case, it’s her vocals and the wonderful violin that drive the record for me.

Dead poetry is pretty much the typical doom/ gothic release and it’s actually quite good if you’re a fan of the style. At times it becomes monotonous, even more so than the norm, and it’s nothing I haven’t heard before (as I said, it’s actually an amalgamation of other bands from the genre, Tristania included), but because of Vibeke’s return it becomes sort of a treat.

Like I mentioned above, I would’ve liked a bit more passion, because even Vibeke sounds slightly detached most of the time. I actually didn’t realise what was missing until I heard Meson, but now I can’t go back. For me the charm of music and of gothic metal in particular lies in this display of sorrow, melancholy and sad beauty and sadly there’s not much of it here. Still… Vibeke. If that’s not enough to warrant a listen, then clearly you haven’t spent your high school days waving your arms in the mirror and meowing to My lost Lenore. Just me? Ok, then.