Schwarzer Engel

Schwarzer Engel, as the name indicates, come from Germany and one could easily predict that they're a gothic metal band, which is true. They've been around for 4 years and their first EP saw the light of day during 2010, the same year Apokalypse (debut) came out as well and now the time has come for their sophomore work, Träume Einer Nacht. In one hand, the cover artwork is once again centered around their main man, Dave Jason, quite cliché dare I say and allegedly dark just for the sake of it. To some people it will appeal, it's just that, it didn't succeed to my eyes.

On the other hand, the music is more rewarding. Imagine slight references to London After Midnight, Gothminister touches and a "light"-sounding The Vision Bleak/Crematory aesthetic in a heavy enough environment. There are many native speaking German bands around, so if you really like the pompous and at the same time poetic accent of this beautiful language in terms of gothic metal, then another band in this scheme wouldn't really hurt, on the contrary.

Dave Jason's vocals and the orchestrations have to be the main core of ambiance in here. He possesses the renowned semi-baritone "gothic" air (somewhere between Allen B. Konstanz [The Vision Bleak], Christ Pohl [Blutengel] and Till Lindermann [Rammstein]), sounding a bit more fragile or harsher respectively at times. As for the keyboards, they perform a wonderful atmosphere-evoking role, floating all over the place like a threat or thin mist, surrounding the listener in their very own crystal clear cage. The production is good but emphasizes a bit upon the vocals/keyboards duo, placing a bit in the background the heavily distorted guitars, without burying them though. As for the drumming, it may be programmed, it may not, but it's pretty good and lends groove in the compositions.

In general, if you're into Teutonic gothic metal (German-speaking with "vulgar" gentleness) then you should give Schwarzer Engel a try. After all Träume Einer Nacht is pretty decent in everything it has to say, even though it has nothing new to offer in terms of innovation etc.