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Band: Coma Divine
Album title: Dead End Circle
Release date: 26 August 2011
Label: SPV
Tracklisting:
01. Burn, Sister
02. About A Girl
03. Fast Lane
04. Secret Lover
05. Reason To Live
06. Praise The Fallen
07. From Time To Time
08. I Remember
09. The Odd One Out
10. Rotten World
11. Dead End
The third Sonja Kraushofer musical incarnation; after well known L'Âme Immortelle and Persephone; we find her in a more gothic metal or groovy rock oriented band and Dead End Circle is their debut. She gathered together some skilled musicians like Ashley Dayour on guitars, known from gothic rock legends Whispers In The Shadow, Martin Hofert on cello who performed with Sonja before in Persephone, but is also known because of his appearance in Sopor Aeternus, Francis Heinrich Lirsch on bass who also worked with Sonja before like live member for L'Âme Immortelle and Wolfgang Luckner on drums. So, the team is up and let's see what they offered to this a little bit tired genre.
Dead End Circle is an absolute refreshment in female fronted metal, you know Sonja is an amazing singer, far from usual "playboy" kind of girls behind the microphone of many symphonic goth kind of metal bands. The use of distorted cello is something that gives a special tone to a lot of tunes up here and I've had a feeling that the guys from Apocalyptica did something around here. Album starts with highly energetic in your face groove rocking "Burn Sister", followed by "Rotten World" with it's hard hitting chorus, then similar in mood "The Odd One Out" and "I Remember" with their alternative approach that sometimes reminds of Faith No More. "From Time To Time" is an absolute winner in the category of fastest tracks up here with it's nice melodic and catchy hard rocking/gothic rock drive. Coma Divine shows that they are able to make astonishing atmospheric gothic metal songs with glamorous haunting "Praise The Fallen" which instrumentation reminds me of British Paradise Lost and it's successor, the ballad "Reason To Live" where we can hear some nice string job. All of eleven songs featured on this album are showing a lot of potential for these artists who are usually not associated with this kind of genre and yet, this is not an album for those seeking something new on the scene, but for those who like to see some professional musicians performing outside their normatives. And yes, the manner how this album ends with more than 8 minutes long epic "Dead End" in kind of The Gathering meets Doro style is absolutely fantastic, no words can describe this evocative rather psychedelic masterpiece.
Sonja showed us that she can give shivers everywhere she appears, not only with her dramatic singing, but also with screams and powerfull vocal performances, especially when she is circulated with great musicians like on this album. I must admit that not all of the songs made a big impression on me, but those which did it left me speechless.
Written by: T.V.
Rating: 8/10
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