CoC : Trail of Tears - Disclosure in Red : Review

Trail of Tears - _Disclosure in Red_
(DSFA Records, 1998)
by: Pedro Azevedo (8 out of 10)

Despite Theatre of Tragedy's apparent departure from metal with their mediocre _Aegis_, the number of new bands using death and female vocals as well as keyboards in metal has been remarkable lately. Trail of Tears are another Norwegian band who have chosen those basic ingredients for their music and, similarly to what happens with most other new bands in the genre, tried to add just a little something of their own -- in this case, mainly Helena Iren Michaelsen's vocals, which are more varied than usual (in "The Day We Drowned", for example), including some impressive operatic vox, which I feel should have been used more often throughout the album. Trail of Tears also use some -relatively- heavy and busy guitars and faster parts, and, similar to their labelmates Within Temptation, their music can get quite "bombastic" at times. Although the second half of the album is overall inferior to the excellent first half (enough to make them lose one mark), Trail of Tears' debut album still flows well enough. _Disclosure in Red_ offers plenty of musical quality and well achieved arrangements, even some traces of originality here and there, and it can be very enjoyable.

(article published 13/2/1999)

ALBUMS
1/28/2007	K Sarampalis	8.5	Trail of Tears - Existentia