CD Review: Leaves' Eyes' "Meredead"

What can I say about Leaves' Eyes and my love for this band? Not enough. Following their evolution from their debut, Lovelorn, through to their newest release, Meredead, is pretty epic, and I can only say that the movers & shakers behind this band, vocalist, composer and lyricist Liv Kristine and composer, harsh vocalist, composer, and producer Alexander Krull (Liv's husband), and their knack for producing lush, rich soundscapes accompanied by lovely, evocative imagery and storytelling only gets better and better with each album they do. Meredead is a tour de force in epic Nordic folk metal and a huge leap forward in the evolution of Leaves' Eyes' sound. This album sees LE make the jump from Nordic folk-inspired metal to full-on folk metal - and it is fantastically executed on every level. Meredead is heavy, folky, and more gorgeous in sound than any of their previous CDs.

From the opening rat-a-tat-tat of an almost military-sounding drum beat in the first song, "Spirits' Masquerade" the listener is transported to a magical place everyone who digs this kind of metal only hopes exists in the afterlife. Based mostly on Viking and Norwegian folklore, with a bit of Irish thrown in for good measure, Liv Kristine herself puts it best when describing the landscape of Meredead: "Sometimes you will hear about men going on adventures, some ending up drowning in the sea, their wives, evil witches, three-headed trolls, or spell-bound princesses, as well as marble halls and blood-thirsty creatures."

I use this quote by Liv also because five out of the 11 sung songs (the twelfth,"Veritas", is pretty much an instrumental with a bit of non-lyric vocalizing) are written in languages other than English, so I cannot properly verify what they are about. If you have the bonus track "Sorhleod" you get a13th song, and it's also not English. Liv took it upon herself to write some lyrics in Olde English (the title track, "Meredead," for instance, which translates into "dead by/in the sea,"or "the mortal or killing sea", according to Liv) and I believe the bonus track "Sorhleod" is also in Old English (correct me if I'm wrong). There are songs sung in Norwegian, including two traditional tunes, "Nystev" and "Kråkevisa."

Adding to the mystical atmosphere of Meredead are a host of folky instruments like the uilleann pipes, a traditional Norwegian instrument called a nyckelharpa, the mandoline, the baroque guitar, the fiddle, and whistles. There is also a lot of choir work and on several songs guest vocalists appear (Anette Guldbrandsen appears on 5 tracks, and Maite Itoiz appears in two), and the vocal harmonies combined with Liv's amazing voice are beautiful.

One of the big improvements overall that I heard on this album was the speed of the songs. LE previously leaned towards slower, more "doomy"-sounding songs with not a lot of gallopping tempos. Meredead is has a lot of speed to it, and I really enjoyed that change very much.

There are so many stand-out songs here, but ones that stuck out to me as particularly awesome were "Étain", which the wannabe Celt in me really appreciated, the traditional Norwegian song, "Kråkevisa", "Nystev" and the over 8-minute long "Sirglinn" on which Liv's sister, Carmen Espanæs, vocalist for Midnattsol, makes a guest appearance.

Low on weaknesses in general, my typical beef with LE does apply here: Alex's growls. As I said in my review of Melusine, I totally respect Alex's work, but his growls are just not my cup of tea. Luckily, they are not all over the place in this CD.

And as usual, the album art is amazing. The booklet is beautiful to look at.

So, this rates a double horns up from this reviewer. Well done, Leaves' Eyes! \m/ \m/

Edit May 22: God, writing and then editing this post made me hate Blogger even more than I already do. I am seriously considering moving this little project over to WordPress where the platform is 10000000% better and easier to work with...

Leaves' Eyes Update

I am so fucking excited! One of my fave bands ever, Leaves' Eyes, just updated their Facebook page with a pile of info on their upcoming album! The CD is called Meredead and is slated for an April 22nd release in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

The album cover has been released, and the announcement on the band's FB site includes this quote from vocalist & lyricist Liv Kristine:

"As we began composing the first song ideas for our fourth full-length album,
all of us were very eager to take another step in strengthening both the
individual sound and concept of Leaves' Eyes, like we have done album by album.
Along with the song-writing process, I made up my mind about the songs' themes,
and drowned myself in different sources of literature. Some songs clearly needed
lyrics rooted in northern history and culture, as well as having mystical
themes. Being an Old-English fan, I decided to write some of the lyrics in
Old-English, which of course included further studies of grammatical and
phonetic knowledge, which I really enjoyed doing. Next to modern English and
Old-English, some songs are sung in traditional Norwegian, to keep their strong
individuality and focus on certain themes from special genres in Norwegian
traditional singing. The album is given the title "Meredead", as one of the
songs on the album. It is my own word-creation (at least I haven't found it in a
dictionary yet), and it may mean both "dead by/in the sea", or "the mortal or
killing sea". In my lyrics you will find traditional themes from Viking
literature and Norwegian song tradition, moreover, tales from the Irish isles,
some from already existing sources, some made up myself. Sometimes you will hear
about men going on adventures, some ending up drowing in the sea, their wives,
evil witches, three-headed trolls, or spell-bound princesses, as well as marble
halls and blood-thirsty creatures. I allowed myself more freedom for the concept
of "Meredead", telling a number of different stories, real, mystical or
sometimes maybe even both."

You guys in GAS have all the luck! You seem to get all the good stuff first!

From Liv's description, this sounds like one hell of an album, with some great themes and a lot of thought put into the concepts and lyrics. I'm really impressed that Liv has taken on writing some lyrics in Old English; that's not easy shit at all, especially if English is your second language. The album cover looks pretty cool, too, I have to admit.

So, definitely something to look forward to come spring, but as usual, I do hope I don't have to wait forever to get a copy; sometimes living in North America is so annoying - we always get the later release dates and it's such a pain in the ass!

CD Review: Liv Kristine's "Skintight"

Oh, how I love Liv Kristine! I love her voice, she rocks the corset, she is ridiculously gorgeous. I first encountered her a few years back when I discovered Leaves' Eyes, which subsequently became one of my favourite bands and Liv one of my favourite vocalists. It did take me some tome to clue in, however, to the fact that she had a solo career on the side that was more of the pop/rock persuasion than the metal. I listened to Deus ex Machina and it was not my cup of tea, though I love how she sounds on it.

When I heard Skintight was coming out, I wouldn't have given it much thought, except I read Liv's description of the concept, and I was intrigued. She said:

Most recordings were done 'in one go,' i.e. record a complete song without
breaks. Moreover, we've kept and paid attention to the natural processes which
take place during singing, like breathing, movements of the lips, emotional
expression and strength etc. All this makes the album authentic, real, and
direct. The music is played with only a few, however, original instruments.

Recording a song without breaks sounded very curious to me, since I am not unaware of the fact that the complex multi-tracked recordings I usually listen to are obviously not recorded all in one go. The simplicity Liv described above appealed to me, as did the idea of using only a few instruments. Upon the release of the "Skintight" video, I was a little skeptical. There is kind of a flashy, fashion-y thing going on here that put me off a bit. Things change!

Since finally receiving my copy of the CD and sitting down with the CD booklet and really listening to the songs, I am in love with this release. I am addicted to the song "Skintight."

I wouldn't necessarily class the CD as pop, per se. It's a mellow rock with a lot of acoustic elements in it that speak to the concept of simplicity. The lyrics, written by Liv herself, are beautiful: thoughtful, insightful, and expressive. They are honest. Liv's voice in Skintight leaves behind the drama of Leaves' Eyes; there is a pureness to it that I really enjoyed. Backing vocals are kept simple and minimal, and I found that a really cool thing to hear because I am so used to complex harmonies & backing vocals in LE.

I find myself quite haunted by this CD and I've barely been able to stop playing it since I got it in the mail last week (the same day that Loreena McKennitt's new CD arrived; another amazing disc that has been competing with Liv for play time here at home). Songs that I particularly love and find resonant are "Skintight", "Twofold" and "Wonders." The closing track, "The Rarest Flower" is also lovely.

This is definitely a CD to be savoured over and over again. Awesome job, Liv. Horns up. \m/

Liv Kristine's "Skintight"

OK..............

Interesting................



People who read this blog should know what a huge fan I am of Liv, however, I am not sure how I feel about this video. I was totally expecting a pop album, because her solo stuff is pop for sure, and as far as pop goes, I'd much rather support Liv and listen to her than any other pop idiot out there (you know...Rhianna, Britney, Beyonce, and basically most American female - and for that matter, male - pop singers/acts) but I guess this video is a bit, I don't know..."fashionista" for me. Don't get me wrong, the woman is ridiculously gorgeous! But the purple outfit, for one thing, kind of disturbs me because it looks like she's wearing granny undies! Anyway, I am very interested in listening to the album, which comes out in Canada September 14.

Rocking 30-Something (and one 40-something) Metal Chicks

In less than two weeks, I will be having a birthday myself. I'll be 36. At this time of my life, I'm doing a lot of reflecting, and I do this with a sense of amazement because for me, life has just started to really take off in so many ways. I look at what I have now, what I have accomplished, and I feel so full of gratitude. I really feel this past year that I have grown younger, not older.

I thought I'd write a post about metal women around my age who totally rock, both in celebration of being immensely cool in your mid to late 30s, but also in response to those people on MFF who have particularly agist attitudes towards a certain female vocalist. The target of this agism recently turned 39, but even before this, she was accused of being "middle aged" and "a granny" and the rounding up of her age to 40 was done with derision, as if 40 is a bad age. I find this extremely offensive, to say the least. Mind you, most of these nay-sayers are in their 20s, so yeah, a woman in her late 30s might seem so dreadfully old, but fuck, people, you have a lot to learn.

So here is my list of 30-something women who are still rocking, and still as metal as hell.

1. Liv Kristine. Born February 14, 1976. Age: 34. Lead singer of Leaves' Eyes and killer solo artist in her own right. I love this woman. She is so ethereally beautiful it almost makes me want to cry, and she is sexy and talented as hell. Will she be granny-ish in a few years? I think not.

2. Cristina Scabbia. Born June 6 1972. Age: 38. Lead singer of Lacuna Coil. This is no "middle aged granny" let me tell you.

3. Sharon den Adel. Born July 12, 1974. So, she will be 36 tomorrow. Lead singer of Within Temptation. God, I love this woman. She has two little children, a wicked partner, a wicked career, does a lot of her own costume designs, which I love, and is a wicked talented woman. And she is ridiculously gorgeous. Even in 3 years, she will be no "middle-aged granny." She is just getting better and better, as far as I'm concerned.

4. Anneke van Giersbergen. Born March 8, 1973. Age: 37. Ex-The Gathering, now of Agua de Annique. I will always remember her headbanging away on stage with The Gathering, with that amazing long hair she used to have. She rocks!





5. Stephanie Luzie. Born April 6, 1974. Age: 36. Lead singer of Atargatis and Darkwell. Talk about amazing hair! I have hair envy when ti comes to Stephanie! Fucking gorgeous, fucking amazing singer, fucking amazing on stage, and pretty fucking decent lyricist. I think she is fucking awesome.

6. Sandra Schleret. Born June 26, 1976. Age: 34. Lead singer of Elis. Now, I don't know all the details, but it is well known that Sandra had a very severe illness that almost killed her at one point, but she survived with gusto, so you go and ask her how granny-like she is feeling these days!

7. And how about Doro? Born June 3, 1964. The Queen of Metal is 46. She is the only officially middle-aged woman on this list (because, over here in my culture, middle age starts around the mid to late 40s), but is she granny-like? I think not! She still looks and sounds amazing, and she still fucking rocks.

I'm sure there are others I could mention, but these are the ones I came up with on the fly. Let me know of any others you know of!