Grayscale - When The Ghosts Are Gone

Album of the week is not necessarily an album review, nor the album presented a new release, but it's something that has impressed lately, for whatever reason we say.

At the beginning of the 2000s a band called Grayscale took off from the dark forests of Mikkeli, Finland, playing melancholy and slightly gothic metal. Prior to Grayscale, at the end of the 1990s, the band was known as a quartet called Four Bitches, but on the only full length album the band ever released, When the Ghosts Are Gone, the crew comprises six people. Grayscale was buried apparently after the demo Interior World, which was to be their last, in 2004. Later on some of the band members have appeared in such bands as Crimfall and Enthrope.

Basically, Grayscale is Four Bitches taken onto the next level. After using merely harsher vocals during the Four Bitches era, clean vocals have been added beside them, leading the album more towards gothic metal, reminding one of older Entwine and To/Die/For. The same feeling is also prompted by synthesizers which were not yet used during Four Bitches.

Some tracks on When the Ghosts Are Gone are remakes of songs found on Four Bitches' demos, others are previously unheard, newer material. Old songs have been transformed into excellent adaptations for Matti Hämäläinen's clean voice, while some contrast is provided by the guitarist Miika Partonen with his rough voice – just like on the demos. The songs flow delicately accompanied by keyboards and melodic, albeit fairly simple, guitar lines. Melancholy self-destruction theme is present in most songs, and I would hazard a guess certain Lopakka's lyrics notebook has been open somewhere in the background.

It's difficult to point out individual tracks above others, but the most memorable are straightforward and melodically simple The Fire Inside Me, which is about a fading will to live, and musically more saucy Shape In The Shadows. Otherwise the style of the songs throughout the whole album is quite similar – a feature which could be considered a flaw as well.

Grayscale is probably quite an unknown act outside Finland, and hardly particularly famous even when domestically speaking. When The Ghosts Are Gone is still very high-quality material for the lovers of gothic metal, and it's still available for a reasonable price at least in Finnish record stores. All in all, Grayscale is an excellent combination of Sentenced, To/Die/For and Entwine, and quite recommended to the fans of the genre.

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Dreamtale – Epsilon

Album of the week is not necessarily an album review, nor the album presented a new release, but it's something that has impressed lately, for whatever reason we say.

Dreamtale's Epsilon may be picked up for two reasons: firstly, it is a particularly good album to be an album of just any week. Secondly, it was officially released in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Benelux countries a few days ago by Rock It Up Records. Although the album was first released in Finland in 2011, its release in the aforementioned European countries is remarkable as well. While I'm looking forward to their next album and hopefully a lot of gigs in local bars here, I also wish the guys could gain success abroad as well – they have all the potential.

And what makes Epsilon so fancy? It's Power with a capital, Erkki Seppänen's magnificent power metal voice and Rami Keränen's grand and creative compositions, backed up by a talented band. And by saying "particularly good" I meant "particularly strong" – none of the ten songs on the album are weak. Lack of speed doesn't add to the lack of strength, and while some tracks—such as Angel Of Light—keep releasing energy right from the very first second, others build it up for a bit longer to be released later, like Lady Of A Thousand Lakes or Reasons Revealed. And something has to be said: the combination of energetic and vigorous (guitar) melodies and moments of nearly perfect silence works very well.

The album has many songs which make awesome live songs too – so many of them are likely to set you in motion one way or another, whether you feel like banging your head or even dancing. (Yes, Epsilon has actually dominated the playlist I listen to when exercising.) One of the most ingenious parts is the C one of Fly Away, being something that reminds one of something else but metal, but is still very... metal. And most melodies are just simply very catchy and nice. Firestorm opens up both gigs and the album equally well, Where Eternal Jesters Reign has excellent synthesizers and backing vocals, Mortal Games rules with its interesting drums and chorus.

Hopefully Dreamtale's next album will be at least something equally stunning – and if it's much better, it has to be something... woah.