In Our Eye

As a genuine fan of gothic metal and music of the like, I found Tystnadesn's sophomore album 'In Our Eye' to be a breath of fresh air. The reason being, probably because I don't see this band as a conventional gothic metal act. They have differences in aesthetics and atmosphere that make them very different from many other bands within the realm of gothic music. The common theme of love and romanticism is almost completely absent - with the exception of 'Fragile', the only ballad on this album - and the tempo is faster, creating a much more overall aggressive sound.

The aggression of this album is further enforced with alternating vocal styles, those being extremely powerful, clean vocals from Laura de Luca, and harsh screams from her male counterpart, Lorenzo Frascaroli. These two will go through songs spitting vocal lines back and forth rather smoothly, though neither voices are that well defined. Laura sounds like she may have some breathing issues and has a hard time getting words out, and the screams are not very different than those found on an early slipknot release, but they do compliment each other so perfectly that the faults seem unimportant.

As I've already stated - probably a few too many times - this band a bit unconventional when it comes to the gothic style, and this can be heard most in the backing instrumentation. The keyboards and orchestrations rarely take the foreground, rather they are used to accentuate the main instrumentation, or as counter melodies to the vocals, the guitar riffs are neither overly plain or technical, but the band does sprinkle in what I can only describe as subtle metalcore riffs - not so much melodic death, as is stated in their genre field on this site - adding a strange layer of depth to the music. Not to mention the the flow between galloping riffs into acoustic interludes changing moods within seconds keep everything interesting.

The only possible flaw with this album is how it is mixed, for often times the main focus seems to be on just the vocals and drums, which isn't necessarily bad because percussion is a very important aspect of the music. However, it often gets to the point where the guitars and bass seem to be overshadowed a bit.

Tystnaden can probably be best described as gothic metal with attitude, making this band perfect for fans of bands like The Agonist and Kells, which might be an interesting tour... But overall 'In Our Eye' is an amazing energetic album by a great band, that from what I have seen is not very big in 'industry' as some might call it. Check it out, you might just be surprised.

Highlights: Born From A Wish, Greed, and Wrong With All The Feelings