CoC : Faith and the Muse - Evidence of Haven / Faith and the Muse

Faith and the Muse - _Evidence of Haven_
(Metropolis, 2001)
Faith and the Muse - _Elyria_
(Metropolis, 2001)
by: Aaron McKay (5 / 4.5 out of 10)

Musically opaque in tone, Faith and the Muse hovers a nearly spoken female voice delicately over a bleached sound of hollow guitars and slight background electronics. William Faith and Monica Richards are the pair responsible for all music and vocals in this group. Furthermore, the vastly interesting layout and artwork on this group's covers falls squarely as duties belonging to Ms. Richards. The material on both discs would remind the listener of a score to a enigmatic movie on the Arts and Entertainment channel about three o' clock in the morning. Having moments akin to initial Mortiis offering, William and Monica can no doubt manufacture a mood within their songs. Where this couple of discs falls short, in my opinion is variance; I struggle to absorb Faith and the Muse until I force myself to do so, but this is contingent only upon my desire to do so. In other words, nothing grabs the listener here unless he or she is sitting in a Victorian high-back chair in a cavernous room adorned with purple drapes. Maybe that is exaggerating things a touch much, but the core idea is the same. _Evidence of Haven_ is more to my taste in this kind of genre, with semi-alluring tracks like "Dead Leaf Echo" and the upbeat "Plague Dance" flooding me with a Fear of God feel. _Elyria_ has a slower, nearly stagnant ebb and flow to it; overly tame and pretty docile with less texture than _EoH_ and especially Faith and the Muse's follow up effort, _Annwyn, Beneath the Waves_, my preferred release from the duo. Faith and the Muse state in their _Evidence of Heaven_ release "(T)hose who have abandoned their dreams... will discourage yours." At the risk of dashing anyone's fantasies, I'd look elsewhere for a salubriously haunting goth experience.

(article published 12/8/2001)