I know them since I interviewed them as part of the promo we did with snoozecontrol.be for the Female Voices Metal Fest. In Wieze (Belgium). I reviewed their previous album and saw them on stage. Now I’m so lucky to get their album and review it for you!
What to expect? Female fronted metal from Taiwan with ancient stories, local traditional influences and thus for us Europeans a good insight on the local history of Taiwan (the story starts after World War 2)! It’s also very interesting to take a look at their clothes and video’s and read the lyrics (if you have the English translation).
Gnawing Nightmare is an instrumental and sounds like a classic oriental track, with slices of an industrial/electro sound and a magical flute. The real work starts with Another Night Of Solitude. It’s a tragic love song situated in the post world war 2 era in Taiwan (by then under military occupation). I hear Muer Chou’s magical voice and some male grunting, mixed with some traditional instruments (a Hena and a Kota). I like the tempo: hitting you like waves of a stormy sea. The lyrics also refers to the pillage, inflation, selling governmental items for personal gains, raping of women, … It’s clear that this wasn’t the happiest of times, despite the fact that the war was over. Ominous Shadows sounds a bit softer, but has a classic oriental touch and that gives it a sweet touch (despite the melancholic and sad story telling). A fact we all have to know is that China wasn’t the happiest leader over Taiwan too. The local people struggled and for everything China only had one response: violence and killing. The 228 event was a turning point after innocent people got killed and a revolution started. Empty Dream says it all about the lyrics. The music is pretty hard, but with the typical mix of metal and local instruments. The song sounds hard, with a melancholic undertone. I like the grunting and the hard hitting drums. Frosty Flower At Dawn sounds like a melancholic ballad. I like Muer’s voice very much as it sounds like very fragile here. More metal minded is Vortex Of Collapse, until Muer starts to sing and give it a real Taiwanese touch. It’s a very sad song, but sounds very sweet to me (really needed to read the translated lyrics to get the song into the right feel). Where Ashen Moonlight Shines is a beautiful instrumental with clearly local influences. I can image we can hear this in certain restaurants in our own town. I like the piano and the special local instrument (it’s the Hena and the Xiao). Hence, for once I don’t mind it’s an instrumental (normally I hate them). Once Shattered Mirror: is the song about loneliness, but it sounds so sweet. It’s just the male vocals who seem to shred the tenderness into pieces. It’s a real heavy metal track and also has a local sound (Taiwanese). Northern Storm sounds indeed like a storm, an oriental storm with a lot of scream and Muer singing pretty high tones. The Hena and Pipa give it a special (melancholic) touch whilst the guitar and the drums do their best to hit hard. By The Lone Light sounds a bit harder and also has a flute in it. Once again the Suona and the Hena render the melancholic beauty. I like the clean backing vocals (they might have sound a bit louder). Towards the end you really get that last outburst and a large feel of energy! Tides Of Time is a short outro and sounds just magical. You can hear the sea and it feels as if you are standing close to it and hope for a happy ending, whilst a sweet voices sings something in a language I don’t understand. After that comes the silence and the music is over.
It was cool to dive once again into the world of Crescent Lament! Thank you for inviting me to review this album and hope to see you next time on stage again (and in good shape/health)!
Check out their bandcamp page at:
https://crescentlament.bandcamp.com/album/land-of-lost-voices
