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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Filled with a dark beauty, July 14, 2000
This review is from: Long Ago and Far Away (Audio CD)
The diversity of the songs on this album is truly incredible. Each one stands out from the others with its own unique sound, evoking a myriad of emotions ranging from joy to melancholy. "Tonight," an intense yet simple love song, is rife with a dark, heady euphoria, expressed in such lyrics as "no regrets, no turing back, oh throw all caution to the wind". The same intensity is transformed into disappointment in the sorrowful "Shadow," a portrait of unrequited love. "And the rain beats on the window pane, counting the years passing. You never came." The collection has its share of quiet, introspective songs, including a haunting cover of "Alice" and the deliciously morbid "Ashes in the Wind." (I can't begin to describe how much I love this song, with its eerie vocals and surreal imagery. "Gathered on stony steps, we breathe our last whispers of the end." It's one of the Shroud's most melodic songs, and perhaps also the "gothiest".) But there are also more energetic pieces, such as "Caged Bird" and "Sulfur, Salt and Mercury," which seem almost to scintillate with a dark energy. The different styles are well balanced, though. There's a whimsical, almost ethereal quality to all the songs, and the entire album has a vaguely pagan overtone. One can hear many elements of the style later developed in A Dark Moon Night, though there's also a raw quality here which reminds me a little of Switchblade Symphony's Serpentine Gallery. This album continues to hold my interest although I've played it countless times. The melodies are beautiful, the lyrics at times inspirational. This is a band which deserves a lot more attention, and an album that I highly recommend.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another wonderful falling dream.., December 27, 2000
This review is from: Long Ago and Far Away (Audio CD)
This is a beautiful album, melodic but fresh. Too many goth bands either go for a pounding, dark rock sound, or go totally ethereal. Either extreme gets boring after a while. This band does a little of both, throws in a female lead who sounds properly goth without pretending to be a fallen angel or a vampire queen, and makes the whole thing sound great. 'Falling Dream' is a spacy kind of fantasy in a fairy tale style. 'Alice' is a brilliant rocker with a fresh delivery - sometimes I actually prefer it to the original (if you didn't know, it's an ancient Sisters of Mercy song). A great bunch of songs for those who wish goth music hadn't gotten so vapidly pretentious in the Nineties.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
MYSTERIOUS ETHEREAL ROCK FOR THE MILLENNIUM, November 20, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Long Ago and Far Away (Audio CD)
Amongst the thousands of Pearl Jam imitators, wanna-be rap stars, typical 'watered-down' sound of top 40, and adult contemporary, is a underground scene, which is unknown to the majority of the masses. within this underground scene there are many scenes, and in the darkest Shadows of the underground sits a "Gothic" scene. Hidden in the Esoteric underground is a band comprised of five very talented people, and those people are in a band, and that band is called THE SHROUD. Led by the beautiful Lydia Fortner, who writes all the lyrics and sings them with a passion that has been missing in rock music for many years, The Shroud, who hail from Fresno, Cal. are the first band in the Gothic community who have managed to meld classic rock instrumentation, classical music, Dream Pop, and Gothic Rock into a sound that is very unique. Upon listening to this Cd the very first time it was like undergoing some sort of spiritual awakening. One feels like they are entering a trance for the first time, and thrown into a mystical world that falls somewhere between "Alice in Wonderland and Braum Stokers Dracula". For example Lydia manages to weave a spell over the listener with her beautiful voice in the song "CAGED BIRD", where she sings "Jade and Silver overhead Orchids crushed upon your bed Your thoughts may wander freely And the caged bird sings so sweetly..", which intices the listener to listen more and more and even more. In the song "Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury", which is an Alchemical formula, but utilized as a message from Lydia, that people should open themselves to the world of the dark as evident when she sings "Open your heart and see the night and you'll be blinded by your newfound sight." followed by a fact known to all practitioners of the Occult "Without the sun shining deadly bright all things take on their own true light." In the Waltz "She", a song about childhood memories, Lydia sings: "She sees creatures behind the glass crying with a voice she heard once in a childhood dream falling through a window she once shattered...", making one to reflect upon their own childhood. Being a "Goth" in 1990's America is the equivalent of being a witch in 1690's America, as evident in "Wednesday's Child", where Lydia sings "Awail the day the net will be drawn to let you out. Turning away cover your pain never expect them to see", but Lydia also offers hope where she sings "Wander in the old places. Distant memory of how the future will be", indicating that the "Gothic Community" will eventually become accepted into mainstream society. I percieve this band, and others of their caliber to have a strong impact on the music industry. Not just in the way music is performed, but how Unique Artists, like themselves market their own material, bypassing the traditional 'corporate' machine by submitting what are known as MP3 files, which allow listeners to download performers material onto their harddrive for a listen, which will effect the sales of artists who are, and have been shutout by the music industry. Band like THE SHROUD will help change the way in how music is sold and listened to, proving that "Gothic Rock music" is as viable as any other form of pop music. I think THE SHROUD will be around for a long time, for they have many great tunes and innovative approaches to popular music in general.
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