Liv Kristine
Vervain
Napalm Records
2014
Liv Kristine does need any special reference as she’s a known goth-metal diva since her old days with Theater Of Tragedy. The truth is that she never managed to match the success she once had with TOT, not with Leave’s Eyes or with her solo works such as this. She still has a wonderful voice and she’s quite pretty.
In “Vervain”, Liv’s husband, Alexander Krull (Atrocity) has the control, as he always does since Liv started following her own way. Musically “Vervain” has a clear gothic rock/metal direction with a few doom passages and various pop rock/metal, electro-rock and atmospheric moments. Way better than the rather pop-ier previous works. Liv has two good duets, one with Michelle Huber (End Of Green) on “Love Decay” and with Doro Pesch on “Stronghold of Angels”. Doro sounds fine but I kinda think her voice is not suitable for this kind of music. The electro gothic pop/rock tracks are not very pleasing and surely the metalheads won’t fancy them at all. Alexander has also delivered the album’s production which is quite good on the whole. I would fancy a heavier guitar sound but that’s not what they intended to do in the first place, so no harm done.
“Vervain” is a solid album but still not the kind of album which will bring Liv on the top of the game again. Perhaps that ship has already sailed, but as long as she can release fine albums then there’s nothing wrong with that. It is almost certain that you come upon success and dominate the world only once in your lifetime, so Liv has no other way but take it easy and do her thing without any anxiety…
In “Vervain”, Liv’s husband, Alexander Krull (Atrocity) has the control, as he always does since Liv started following her own way. Musically “Vervain” has a clear gothic rock/metal direction with a few doom passages and various pop rock/metal, electro-rock and atmospheric moments. Way better than the rather pop-ier previous works. Liv has two good duets, one with Michelle Huber (End Of Green) on “Love Decay” and with Doro Pesch on “Stronghold of Angels”. Doro sounds fine but I kinda think her voice is not suitable for this kind of music. The electro gothic pop/rock tracks are not very pleasing and surely the metalheads won’t fancy them at all. Alexander has also delivered the album’s production which is quite good on the whole. I would fancy a heavier guitar sound but that’s not what they intended to do in the first place, so no harm done.
“Vervain” is a solid album but still not the kind of album which will bring Liv on the top of the game again. Perhaps that ship has already sailed, but as long as she can release fine albums then there’s nothing wrong with that. It is almost certain that you come upon success and dominate the world only once in your lifetime, so Liv has no other way but take it easy and do her thing without any anxiety…