As any good funeral dirge should, _Dance of the Seven Veils_ asks (early and often): how slow can you go? The subgenre's strength has never been its breathtaking technical achievements but its emotional prowess in plumbing the depths and many forms of human tragedy. _Dance_ performs its duties brilliantly, due in no small part to Kristina Rocco's superior vocal performance throughout the record. Her spectacular soprano mourns over the ringing low-end piano melodies, never sounding shy (even during the downcast quiet parts) and never waxing more theatrical than the moment calls for. Rocco's husband, Michael, rounds out the line-up with his injection of haunted left-field sound edits, shuddering guitar distortion, plodding beats, and buried whisper-screams. His wailing guitar leads complement the bassy buzzing and Kristina's radiant vocal harmonies. _Dance_ is certainly dark, but the fervent hope of light lives deep in each shadow.

Norway's Funeral wrought a similar marriage of bleak doom and womanly operatic singing. Short-lived Maryland project Half Makeshift constructed bleak drone experiments out of the same (non-vocal) raw materials. Virgin Black rendered a grim requiem Mass with related artistic intentions. But nothing else sounds quite like Herodias.