Band:	Shadows Dance
Album:	A Quatrain For The Damned
Style:	Gothic metal
Release date:	2003

01. Licking The Limbs Of Abyss
02. Last Kiss
03. Until The Young Whore Sings
04. Dance In The Storm
05. Swathe Me Into Illusion
06. My Christ Was Dark
07. Her Cruel Masque

A nice surprise from Greece my friends! Shadows Dance, is the second release from the new label Ebony Tears (a sub label of Cold Blood Industries), and let me tell you that I was surprised with the thing that they tried to do here, even though at the end the result was not that impressive.

My first complaint is the art, the cover art of the Cd is very nice, but once you open the booklet you discover an awful layout all over, different and confusing fonts, horrible band pictures, just unpleasant, but let's focus in the music, because that's the important.

Shadows Dance is a strange mixture, in this brew you have, enchanting female vocals, male spoken vocals, some growls here and there, electronic sounds, violin, lots of keyboards and choirs a lá Therion (not as big though), pretty handful of elements right?

The thing is that the whole mix of elements is too chaotic and tends to disorientate the listener, and after a few spins you won't stand the spoken vocals, they become really annoying, stop talking, start singing!
In the other hand, the enchanting female vocals and the violin gives the album an unique atmosphere, the electronic elements is used very little, but they work out really well for the music.

When I heard the first track "Licking The Limbs Of Abyss" I was completely blown away by all these elements, the tempo changes and the catchy riffing, "Last Kiss" also is a killer song, it has a highly addictive keyboard line, and the spoken/female vocals duo works out very well in this one, "Until The Young Whore Sings" starts things furiously, with Death Metal riffs and rough vocals with the choirs, giving the song a nice touch. "Dance In The Storm" could be easily describe as a 80's wave song, "My Christ Was Dark" also got some 80's influences thrown in the mix.

This is not a bad album, don't be afraid, chances are that if you like Gothic Metal you'll like this one, for me the first impression was incredible, then the album wore out, at least for me, but I'm sure I'll give this a spin once in the while.

There are thing to improve for their next release, like the inside artwork and the annoying spoken vocals, until then, my bet is on Shadows Dance.