Elements of Disorder

Gothic metal is like dooms weak little brother, and for this I hate it. Wedding in Hades are by no means a bad band, and they are more than competent at playing their genre, it's just the genre itself which makes me dislike this. This slow, pretty mournful and melodic, it's also boring as shit. As expected these songs take their time getting around to their main focal points, which can really be pretty cool such as the piano section at the end of "Safety" or any of the somewhat unsettling tremolo riffs, but mostly this is softer than usual melodic doom riffs which fail to achieve anything more than 'not being particularly cheery'. On the plus side the band doesn't do a whole lot of balladry or symphonic stuff with the keyboards, so they try their hardest not piss me off.

And they certainly don't piss me off; this is as listenable as anything the straight up gothic metal genre has to offer. The closest comparisons I can think of are a heavier Lake of Tears meets a lighter Draconian, only without as much catchiness as the former, or the beauty or doominess of the later. The mix things up with the odd tremolo riff, sounding almost like 2nd wave BM performed with a gothic metal tone, which is kind of unique sounding. There isn't a whole lot to speak about musically; the drums are, aside from a solitary blast beat section, unadventurous and plodding like the music. The guitars play the odd sort of gothic melody and a bunch of slow watered down doom riffs and drawn out power chords with nothing but the occasional piece of lead work to really make it stand out. With that said, this is about as guitar driven as the genre gets, which is kind of sad when you think about it. The keys are actually a strong point, they know when they have something to add, and when they don't they're content to stay in the background, instead of just imposing themselves all over the music whenever they feel. There are some cool clean piano lines around here which fit in well, although this is most effective on the opening song. Vocally Wedding in Hades are solid, never falling into needless overly dramatic whining or anything of that sort, all you get here a pretty bland but competent mid ranged singing, and a hoarse throaty growl. Neither are very good, but again, they fail to piss me off.

The other thing which makes me bear this a little better than most is that the band don't pander to any audience here, while the music is never challenging or full on, it is never mindlessly dainty and melodic, nor do they shoehorn in any traditional gothic traits such as keyboard led ballads, needless symphonics, or lame vocal experimentations. The band is clearly playing what comes naturally to them, and as uninspiring as most of the music on here is, it never feels forced or manufactured.

As far as gothic metal goes, this is pretty much as good as you're going to find. Sadly, while it skips most of the genres trademarked embarrassing moments, the riffs are still mostly ineffectual, and the music never really achieves anything impressive. If you like gothic music trimmed down from most of the lame cheesiness this is as good a place to start looking as any.