Lightless Moor, The Poem - CD Review
Crying My Grief to a Feeble Dawn

Wormholedeath Dreamcelleleven
8 tracks
2013
Italian / English lyrics
9.5/10

The Italians are known for some of the most beautiful Gothic music we get in this genre. They’re also known for some of the darkest music in this genre. This one follows that pattern. This is beautiful music, but in a truly dark way. Cadaveria never wrote anything darker, the lyrics here read like a Gothic novel from the 18th century. If you savor the darkness, this one is something to be treasured. You get all the components we appreciate here, a beautiful femme vox, a solid male death metal vocal, symphonics as good as they need to be and pounding metal. You can go two ways, you can just listen to the music and be happy for a long time. Vocalist Ilaria Falchi is a fine soprano, a first rate vox of the kind we have come to expect from the Italians. That death metal vocal comes from Federico Mura who is one of the guitarists. And his contribution is a major one, this one goes heavy on the B & B. Now, to be completely accurate, this one is generally classified in the literature as Gothic / Doom metal. I guess that’s not something I want to quibble about but it sure seems heavy on the Gothic to me. This is some fine pounding metal on most occasions.

Well, the band is from Cagliari, Sardinia and I guess that’s somewhere near Italy, these are Italians. The band has a history dating back to 2005 in one form or another. But, it seems Ilaria is the defining characteristic. She writes the music, the lyrics, she seems to be pretty much in charge. The sound is based on melodies and riffs. But mixed into that is a harsh component, both lyrically and musically. The web site tells us this is music “in which death and life, love and hate, madness and sadness are strictly embraced. So it’s highlighted by the dialogue of the two voices, Ilaria’s sensual vocalisms and Federico’s deep and aggressive growl, accompanied by an atmospheric and powerful music.” That pretty much captures it. But that description goes in two directions, the music and the lyrics. You can get pretty comfortable with the music, this is some great material. But, if you miss the lyrics, you’ve missed a lot of what this release is about. And I’d be remiss not to focus a significant part of this review on those lyrics, they’re just too good to ignore.

Probably appropriate to suggest that this is not an EP. There are only 8 tracks but they tend to be substantial. These folks have something to say and they spend some time saying it. These are fully developed tracks, often taking significant time to develop. And the musical component tends to be driven by the lyrical component. Vocal elements are interchanged with the beautiful flowing over and around the death metal component. You can easily be taken to a soothing place with some of the music. There is some truly beautiful material here. But, be aware, even the beautiful takes us to dark places. Listen closely to the message, there is a darkness here that is not to be denied.

We get right to business on this one with the first track, no short Gothic intro, although there is some classical at the entry to the track. But The Lyrics to the Journey make it clear that this will be a dark, beautiful journey. You get it all here, this is pretty much an introduction to the entire release. But pay attention to the lyrics, they’re just as important as the music:

Miles of lines through the forest / To the valley of the castle
Till the rest for my art and feeding / To my essence
Proudly welcome me his walls / Haughty the rooms where timorous
I wander

I can’t breath but I’ll follow / The imaginary path
Suspicious a thousand eyes / Painted

There is some Doom Metal here. The second track, Chained to a Dismal Chant takes this direction. Again, it’s not a short one. It moves in multiple directions, all of them taking us in dark directions. And, again, we’re provided with both beautiful femme vocals and the dark thundering death metal sounds. The metal and the symphonies provide a vehicle to enhance those vocals. It’s like a Norwegian sound in some respects, but the lyrics take the beautiful to the darkness:

Take a bow / Oh my poetess
And listen to all my tortures / In these centuries
Madness possessed purity / To spoil her
And subdue to her / Own will

My dagger excited / To break the curse

Cento Respiri (Slave) takes a softer direction and demonstrates the bands capabilities with this approach to the music. But even here, the soft bows to the metal when the lyric calls for that transformation. Here we get more of the symphonic / operatic capabilities. There’s a solid bass line at one point, it leads to more traditional metal with guitars and drums taking us to the soprano. This one is more Gothic in nature. But we come to a more complete interpretation of that sound with the following track, Overwhelming Darkness. This is the most complete track on the release, some 12.5 minutes of solid Gothic. The lyrics read like a book. A dark book. And the music brings it to us like a a winter storm through the Carolina mountains. We get both the femme vox and the dark male vocal here, could it be presented any other way?

I was condemned / To loneliness
Before I saw your sacrifice / I know now your courage
And madness / When I look at your face
I know what plague / Damned me far away
From you

The killer Gothic continues for the next several tracks, but it does so with a variety of styles. Sacrifice is more of the Doom Metal. Pounding metal takes us to places where the dark vocals, both female and male convey the message. The Italians have a somewhat different take on Doom Metal, more melodic in terms of the female vocal sometimes, but here there are interesting keyboard components that lead us to interesting places. The Lovers and the Forest continues with a similar musical direction. This one goes a little more in the direction of the Gothic. And the male death metal vocal seems to set up the lyrical component. The message is again in keeping with the general theme:

We won’t escape / But give an immortal embrace
To our infinite loneliness

Near the stream / Lighted by the tranquil rays
Of the full moon / And for everyone a tear
We will draft / For the sacred source
That inside us burns

The release ends with a softer track, Dark Side of Our Souls. This one concludes our dark journey with a track that softens the blow. This is more of the beautiful, a fine femme metal vocal that, again, leaves us with a Gothic oriented message;

Only ghosts of ourselves / The words reflected
In tears / Never said

Is this the dark side of our souls / The abyss beyond the surface

If you appreciate the true Gothic, presented with all the musical and lyrical vehicles the genre presents, this one will be truly rewarding. It’s pretty much an early effort by the band, I suspect even better material is yet to come. But, until that time, this one is a player, a solid contribution to the genre. Fine material.

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