Review Summary: Fallenmania, Part 34
I’ve found a rare gem: a doom/gothic fallenmaniac album, from an unusual band. Octavia Sperati was one of the many Norwegian bands gothic metal bands formed in the 90s-early 2000s, except they had more of a heavy-doom sound rather than any symphonic black metal influence, and they were one of their scene’s only all-female bands. They broke up when their singer joined The Gathering. And yet they seem almost forgotten today. That’s a shame, because their album “Winter Enclosure” is a really good piece of gothic doom metal.
Another way that this album is unique, is that it begins as a fairly typical gothic doom album before Fallenmania takes over. After a nice intro with haunting vocals, we get into the heavy, mournful-sounding riffs of “Lifelines of Depth”, over which Silje Wergeland’s melancholic singing glides delicately, only getting slightly louder on the chorus. I guess her voice does sound a little like Anneke Van Giersbergen’s, but it doesn’t on other tracks. “Soundless” has a big, doomy riff repeated through the song, while Silje’s voice takes on a stranger sound, including some louder parts and a spoken word monologue. “Icebound” is like “Soundless” but more: heavier riffs, more melancholic violins and more powerful singing.
And then? “Hymn” is where the fallenmaniac inspiration suddenly comes out, starting as a piano ballad with powerful yet sad singing that sounds very similar to Amy Lee in terms of range and intonation. It’s a weird change, but it sounds fine. It has what’s good about Evanescence-inspired music.
Other tracks combine the album’s two styles, like “Future Is” which shows all the similarities between Silje and Amy’s voices while using a heavy riff that occasionally gets faster, and a good dose of melancholy. “Below Zero” starts with heavy drumming and a weirdly threatening-sounding riff, while Silje sings her heart out, copying Amy’s voice to perfection while a piano plays sometimes gently and sometimes with an icy tone. “Wasted on the Living” has doomy riffs, sad violins and vocals that also sounds eerily like Amy Lee at times. Then we get a two-part ending called “Without Air”, once called a “Before”, the other “After”. They start with melancholic guitars and singing, before adding some heavy guitars. It doesn’t sound too different from other songs in the album, it gets a little repetitive, but it sounds nice.
That was “Winter Enclosure”, the first of Octavia Sperati’s two albums. It’s a little repetitive and monotone, which is a common flaw in a lot of doom metal albums. But the good parts of this album are really good, I’m honestly happy to have finally begun my exploration of Octavia Sperati’s career. It’s so sad that they’re barely remembered today even among gothic metal fans. That’s weird, considering that their singer ended up joining The Gathering, and that their first album definitely could have appealed to many listeners, because it’s pretty good but also because it sounds like a strange combination of many other acts. In terms of Fallenmania, Octavia Sperati started when Evanescence were only publishing their demos, so it would be hard to prove that both bands had even heard of each other. But “Winter Enclosure” came out in 2005, when the gothic and symphonic metal scenes were very aware of “Fallen”, so you can reasonably compare the two. It’s a style that Octavia Sperati abandoned once it wasn’t “cool” anymore, as their second and last album sounds simply like Octavia Sperati, with strange ideas like a Thin Lizzy cover. But even if we’re only going to get one doomy fallenmaniac album, it was still nice, a real breath of fresh air in this often repetitive series.
