Enter the magical world of tales and sagas. 'A Crimson Cosmos' is suitable travelling companion music for such journeys. As the man on the Moon says: "Come, come and try some cosmic weed and glance a world so strange indeed"...

Thank you, but my mind altering thing is beer and that's it. This is the third album from Swedish melancholic metallers Lake Of Tears (LOT from now on). I missed the first one totally, but the second one 'Headstones' (1995) was an individual slab of doomy heavy metal. Now, LOT have released something even more original sounding metal. The music is heavy and doomy kind of metal, mostly very melancholic, but in a dreamy way. The opener 'Boogie Bubble' starts the album with quite cheerfull spirit, but even it cpntains those sad melodies, that are abound on the album. The songs have good drive, even though in a weird dreamy way. LOT sounds like a mix between Cathedral and Cemetary, grooving and glooming... Nine songs are all good or great, especially the instrumental 'To Die Is to Wake', the single cut 'Lady Rosenred' and very melancholic 'When My Sun Comes down'.

There are some keyboards, a piano and female vocals by Jennie Tebler (totally magnificent duet on 'Lady Rosenred'!) to give more flesh over the bones. The vocalist Daniel Brennare has an individual voice, but he's not a very skilled singer. But still, very, very suitable for the band's sound. The production is totally fitting, kind of influenced by 1970s prog/hazy rock or something.

This is like a story-book for adults. Melancholic tales sung over absolutely great music! Even the artwork looks like it was taken straight from a book of fairy tales, and the cover art is as weird as Cathedral always have. A classy release of melancholic, dreamy yet driving metal.

Rating: 8- (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
12/31/1998 00:50