Search - Lake of Tears :: Crimson Cosmos

Weird lyrics with great tunes and performances.

D. Mok | Los Angeles, CA | 02/24/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have a great deal of admiration for Lake of Tears singer/guitarist Daniel Brennare. His band's songs, and Brennare's own instrumental and voice work, have much less of the virtuosity associated with this brand of "melodic death metal", but somehow Lake of Tears comes off sounding great, the simplicity a liberating influence which allows the band to focus on music and songs rather than need to dazzle. By not struggling to impress, Lake of Tears does so mightily, at least to this listener.



Sometimes it's hard to tell how seriously to take this music -- with titles like "Boogie Bubble", "Cosmic Weed" and "Devil's Diner", it's up for grabs. But with a sound as good as this, who cares? Brennare's rhythm work is great, heavy but not overwhelmingly dense, thus allowing for the top-end crunch so often missing from other distortion-happy metal guitarists. Johan Oudhuis' drumming is also wonderful, simple and direct, creating a good clean groove for the songs, and Mikael Larsson's bass often contributes the anchoring hooks for the songs. This band really knows how to make room for everybody, and the result is great-sounding recordings.



The catchy bass intro to "Boogie Bubble" segues into a simple two-chord riff that carries the same pulsating metal groove as Metallica's best works; "The Four Strings of Mourning" is beautifully moody; "Lady Rosenred" has Brennare coupling vocals with clear-voiced Jennie Tebler to good effect, but with a bizarre double-time rhythm and disturbingly bare arrangement in the background; and "Raistlin and the Rose"'s mix of pastoral keyboard melodies and crunching power chords suggest Lake of Tears' later record, Forever Autumn.



This is a band that makes a great argument against the de-tuning trend in metal these days. So many bands are obsessed about playing lower and lower (even Metallica tunes down to C now), with seven-string and baritone guitars, that they forget Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath, the godfather of this style, used a treble booster to get his sound. Most metal bands now aim so much for the bass that they forget the top-end punch; Lake of Tears, on the other hand, achieves its aggression without having to saturate every song with 20 tracks of growly guitars, using dynamics and space rather than block-headed density. A Crimson Cosmos rocks harder than most records these days, and it has the potential to appeal to both fans of this "melodic metal" style as well as more mainstream listeners."

For DragonLance fans

Dale | Athens, AL USA | 04/09/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hey I have to say for those who love Dragonlance novels and Raistlin majere then you will love the track "Raistlin & the rose" It has a nice steady beat throughout the song it is kind of hard to hear the words but after reviewing the lyrics it just like pops out at you the song is based on the legends trilogy between Raistlin & crysania I really recomend this CD hell just for that one song it's really great I promis you want be disapointed in the song"

A fantastic magical cd!!!

Christopher Fryer | United States | 01/29/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I did not know about Lake of Tears until I got Martin Popoff's Encyclopedia Of Heavy Metal in 1997. He gave it 10 out of 10 stars and I have to agree because there is not one bad song on this album. Each song has a cool groove, melodic lead guitar, good fantasy lyrics, and decent vocals. The moods created on some of the songs are fantastic! I would describe Lake Of Tears as slow to mid tempo metal with a bit of goth and a bit of Pink Floyd. They are one of the best undiscovered bands out there. Check out Forever Autumn and Black Brick road too!"