Svegliare di Carmilla

Carmilla Morte is a Symphonic/Gothic Metal band from Colombia which I stumbled upon when randomly browsing metal-archives. Being an avid collector of Gothic Metal releases I contacted the band to get a hold of their debut album “Svegliare Di Carmilla”. The album was released in 2007, nearly two years after the bands formation, a reasonable time for a band to hone their skills before presenting themselves to the world.

And the music does not disappoint at all. This is solid Gothic Metal, with a strong emphasis on the Atmosphere. The symphonic nature of the music is evident from the start of the album. The listener is introduced to Carmilla Morte by a beautiful almost classical intro with a heavy dose of keyboard melodies and choirs, flowing into the first real song. The guitars kick in, supported by a violin melody and double bass drumming. The band employs pretty fast rhythms throughout the album, making me wonder if Power Metal shouldn’t also be a part of their genre description.

The band has a rich sound, and there is a lot to discover in the songs. They frequently use keyboards and violins (damn I love violins in metal) and switch pace and melodies within the songs quite often (hinting at some Progressive influence too), making this an interesting listen. Only point of criticism might be that there is a little too much going on sometimes and that they could have expanded some great passages into whole songs.

The vocals are mainly handled by Mariana and I guess another female singer, because there are both operatic vocals and clean female vocals present. There is also some use of growled vocals in good Gothic Metal tradition (although they are not used that often).

Interesting fact is that it seems Carmilla Morte’s lyrics are at least partially (and perhaps fully) sung in Italian. I cannot be entirely sure though, because I speak neither language. I discovered this while trying to grasp the meaning of some of the song titles. Last time I checked, Colombia was a Spanish speaking country, but running the titles through a Spanish translator didn’t work.

In conclusion: I recommend this to every Gothic and Symphonic Metal fan, although it might be hard to get a hold off.