A Sombre Dance - Estatic Fear

One of the most distinctive and compelling doom metal albums I've heard, Estatic Fear's second and final album is essentially the project of Austrian Matthias Kogler, the only remaining original band member who drafted in guest musicians and a female singer to record his magnum opus. A heavily symphonic album, this is one of the most effective combinations of rock instruments with orchestration that I've ever heard, one that never goes over the top to spoil its sombre, pastoral, historical atmosphere, and perhaps the closest you can get to true Medieval metal (however much of an oxymoron that may be). Each song flows perfectly into the next, and all possess ...