The Legacy of Gaia

There are some truly uncanny curiosities coming out of metal of late, and what is meant by that is bands that are utilizing a good degree of what is expected out of them to forge a truly unique sound. When one thinks of Gothic oriented metal, one would definitely come to expect a presentation that is dramatic, heavily steeped in atmospheric keyboard sounds, and will feature an either exaggeratedly high or low vocalist at the helm, given existing precedents. One of Ukraine's more recent take on things both metallic and somber is an outfit called Dimicandum that accomplishes a dark and depressive sound through a fairly predictable structure, though the nuances in the architecture are extremely uncommon for the style. Their 2012 debut LP The Legacy Of Gaia can be described as a number of different things, but one of them is definitely not a rehash of what everybody else has been doing.

At first glance, this album comes off less as a Gothic album and more along the lines of a later 90s melodic death metal affair with heavy industrial and symphonic tendencies not all the far off from something Eternal Tears Of Sorrow might offer. But the deviations from what might seem like a Ukrainian answer to Children Of The Dark Waters become apparent fairly quickly. There is a heavy degree of groovy, Mid-Eastern influenced riff and melodic work that angles things a bit closer to an almost modern thrash character mixed with industrial elements, particularly on faster songs such as "Bring Me Down To My Atlantis". In fact, this band seems to be taking about as many cues from James Hetfield as they are Jarmo Puolakanaho, and forge a crunch yet largely down-tempo approach that's more guitar oriented, despite the keyboards playing a heavy role in shaping the band's overall sound.

Arguably this band's strongest feature, and also the one that separates them from much of the pack, is lead vocalist and likely unintentional Mark Wahlberg lookalike Roman Semenchuk. If there is a single vocalist out there that might make a decent point of comparison it would be Jari Mäenpää, albeit without the Halford screams and a much huskier sounding mid-ranged baritone. The melodeath comparisons do contain further merit as Semenchuk definitely utilizes an occasional deep barking vocalization that would rival Johan Hegg at his deepest, but most of his work tends to be in clean sung middle-range territory (albeit with a very deep inflection), probably like a huskier answer to James Hetfield. His versatility really shows forth between multifaceted voice characters on "Give Me A Name" vs. a crooning character on the serene ballad "At The Gates Of Ishtar" that most melodeath bands probably wouldn't both with or would employ an additional vocalist to accomplish.

But at the end of the day, this album strikes gold with rock solid songwriting, which despite all the subtle elements at play, is heavily reliant on hooks and predictable patterns. Shorter numbers like the title song "The Legacy Of Gaia", "The Walls Of Jericho" and the slight nod to classic era In Flames closer "When The Sun Burns Out" live and die by a few well placed catchy guitar melodies and largely emphasize massive sounding, sing-along style choruses. Whether by the melodic death metal standard or the quasi-progressive elements at play, this is a very compact and easy to digest album, one that is really only anchored into the Gothic template by the deep, depressing clean vocals and heavy keyboard presence that subsumes all the other moving parts. For it's listed sub-genre, this may be the most aggressive thing out there with maybe the exception of some of Cradle Of Filth's middle era releases, and is definitely a nice change of pace from most of what falls under the modern sounding side of the coin.