Insanity

I first discovered Malinconia on the now-disbanded forum of soniccathedral.com [a site dedicated to female vocal metal albums]. And in that 'Recent Discoveries' subforum, amongst the strange .zip album downloads of Russian acts, and ads for hopeless gawth girl bands, I found a gothic metal band from Ukraine. Granted, I was reluctant at first. The frontwoman was attractive; the name seemed a bit run-of-the-mill to me [Sirenia, Tristania, etc.], so I was a little uneasy.

However, that was when I got a [legal, mind you] download of "Forever Yours" off of their website. Needless to say, I was amazed: no repetitive riffs, no forcedly-operatic vocals [for the most part; I'll get into that later], no cheesy background 'ambient' noises. I finally found something that really, really appealed to me. To be honest, I'm surprised this demo has not been reviewed yet.

The first track is titled "My Insanity - the Dark side of the Doom." While lengthy and a bit showy, the song does, for the most part, live up to it's name. It starts off sounding like it's going to be an instrumental, a bit monotonous in it's performance. However, it shows something else magnificent about this band -- good keyboard riffs. Not just minor arpeggios here and there, but actual melody and talent.

The vocals are good, which in places reminds me almost of a Charlotte Churchill, riding that fine line between overly operatic and straight-foreward classical singing. In any case, this song and "Forever Yours" display the vocals the best. Although sometimes they seem to go a bit sharp/flat or faltering, Tajtana has a very enjoyable voice.

Also to mention is the instrumentation. Malinconia describe themselves as gothic/doom, and they predominately are, but they seem to take much progressive influence. The guitars are played well, and I'm actually very impressed by the drums, only behind the keys and vocals.

Another very good song off of this demo, that almost reminds me of Draconian, is “Forever Yours.” The vocals sound the best in this song, in my opinion, and it is very moving overall. Very seldom do I find a moving gothic metal song, to be completely honest. The lyrics aren’t half-bad, either:

“The pain is deep / I’m fading like a belated flower
Darling, I hear you weep
I’m almost through / I’m melting like a fatigued candle
Honey, you feel it too.”

And although the other two tracks aren't as grand as the two I have mentioned, the songs are very consistent in their performance. I don't have much to say about Malinconia at this point except for that I believe they most -definitely- should be signed, they have so much potential, and I would love to hear a full-length studio album someday.