Black Mare : "Death Magick Mother"

Despite the p/r around this project trying to give it a political slant, this is ethereal goth with an organic band behind it. This project is the work of Ides of Gemini member Sera Timms. It is less inclined towards metal than her other band.  Imagine Switchblade Symphony with a dark indie rock band behind them rather than synths and drum machines. I am not sure that drum machines are not involved as it sounds like they certainly could be. The first two songs have a very similar feel. While they get some good sounds out of what is going on it is fairly limited in terms of dynamic range from one song to the next. The guitar at the beginning of " Death By Desire" sounds like "Hells Bells". The rest of the song is more Cocteau Twins like to some extent but darker. I was fully prepared for this to be a Chelsea Wolfe knock off , but aside from being female singers with a ghostly approach to dark atmospheric music there is not much common ground.

This will be a good soundtrack heading into the Halloween season it has a very fall feel to me. It is easy to get lost in the hypnotic haze the album creates , the only downside of this being the songs become background music and all begin to sound the same. I was on the third song then the next thing I  knew I was on the six song meaning all three songs in between sounded like one big song. When you try to break it down then "Coral Fields" works of a tension that never goes anywhere. So are we to hope this gets resolution in the following song. So if you are wondering if darkness alone can win me over the answer is not really. The guitars do more interesting things on "Babylon's Fold". The atmosphere makes this song less than tangible. It gets marginally more dynamic though the song still wanders in the gloom a bit.

There is a somewhat more conventional approach in the songwriting of "Kala". The release is not of the magnitude that you expect from metal. The bass line slinks more like death rock though it lacks that dirty edge that death rock has. The last song is even more of a conventional feel, though it slinks with an almost apocalyptic creep in it's step. The vocals follow a straighter path. I can hear a slight Velvet Underground influence if we are thinking "Venus and Furs". The darkness is more of a journey , the climax is more sonic and not as intense as their her more metal projects. I will round this up to a 9 on sheer strength of it's darkness and find this album to be really easy to listen to.