Some More News & Another Review

As I mentioned here, I'll be contributing CD reviews to Sonic Cathedrals' web zine, but I have also been invited to contribute to Black Wind Metal's site as well!  The Protagonist, who co-founded the site, invited me last week, and today my first CD review was published there.  It's a review of Dama's debut album, Eirwen, which I've blogged about here before and to which I am still steadily addicted.  You can go here to read it.

Ballads Away: "Rainy Roads" by Dama

I am addicted to Dama!  I have moved on from playing their cover of "Live to Tell" over and over again and have switched to this supremely excellent ballad, "Rainy Roads."  I have played this countless times today on my MP3 player during my travels. It's simple, but it's so beautiful and so emotional.

The lyrics are lovely, too.

Then the light and hunger between us
A surrendered moment
Take it if you like
Then a step
As a mark between us
I'll be your own velevet
If you'll give to me
That bright new age


As I walk I breathe you in
Through rainy roads
An invisible line
I follow
In darkness
Your sweet perfume
Set myself free


Then comes pain
Too much thirst between us
Echoes of a sigh
That will never die
Then your look
As wet drops between us
I'll be shiny velvet
If you'll lay
Upon this age of mine


Hands of greed
That run after each other
To the core of the existence within
You're the only one place in which I can live
Will you ever love me?

They're really evocative and I love that line in the chorus "As I walk I breathe you in through rainy roads."

Here is the song, which, incidentally has an Italian version called "Ombre."  This CD is released in North America August 9 and I'm fucking buying it.

New Find/Come Cover Me: Dama

Thanks to my new colleagues over at the Sonic Cathedral Zine, I'm on the path to discovering all kinds of great new music, something that always gives me immeasurable pleasure.  It's especially pleasurable when, after downloading a whole bunch of new music, the first new CD you play is just killer.  Such is the case with Italy's Dama, which was recommended in a review of their CD, Eirwen, by my colleague Doctor T.

Dama is, to my ear, a symphonic rock-symphonic metal cross-over band and I have been listening to Eirwen all afternoon.  I love it!  The singer, Barbara Schera Vanoli, is fantastic, and Dama's music is just beautiful.  Not super heavy, but heavy enough, and very vocal and keyboard-centred, with great symphonic elements to boot.  They are tagged on Last.fm as "Gothic" but I disagree with that.  They are not gloomy or dark enough to warrant such a label and their sound is lighter.

One song on the album, which is their first, that really stuck out for me is a remake of Madonna's "Live to Tell."  It's fucking spectacular and I have been playing it over and over again (probably driving my neighbours up the wall).  This cover is fresh and keeps the songs integrity while making it more interesting than the original.  And I liked the original; it's one of my favourite Madonna songs.  But this is better, in my opinion, than hers.

Here it is:



Dama also has a single out in Italian called "Regina d'Inverno" which they have translated as "Your Winter."  There is an English version of this song, too, but here is the Italian, which is quite lovely.



What do you think?

You can find Dama at these fine locations:

Last. fm
Dama's official web site
MySpace
Facebook