Review Summary: Ritual, trippy and unclassifiable
Early fall is the right time for unexpected returns and career changes, witchcraft and mysterious women in dark dresses. And what better example of that than Cadaveria’s first album?
Cadaveria started her career in the 90s with the symphonic black metal band Opera IX. Then in the 2000s she left the band, due to the usual creative differences: she didn’t want to limit herself to black metal songs about witchcraft. With her solo career, she found a way to start where Opera IX had left off and go into new, unpredictable directions. No wonder then that the second song on this album is called “Declaration of Spiritual Independence”, and it starts with an energetic thrash riff and Cadaveria’s powerful singing, that sounds both like she’s reciting an incantation and trying to be heard (“Listen to me!”), before turning into a growl.
The mix of gloomy keyboards, raspy growls and powerful singing that’s shrill in a good way feels very similar to Opera IX. But I wouldn’t exactly say this is a black metal song, in fact I can’t really classify it as any specific subgenre. It’s doomy and thrashy at the same time, with little hints of black and gothic metal (dark metal?). And this unclassifiable yet very recognizable style is what she uses for the whole album, with enough variation to stay entertaining and creative.
That’s one word to describe this album, creative. Sometimes, she only uses her gravelly growl over doom riffs, like on “In Memory of the Shadows Madame”, which reminds of that of old school doomy death metal sound I really enjoy, like Derkéta. Or she mostly uses clean vocals, like on “Black Glory” where she uses both her shrill, 80s heavy metal-inspired singing and her quieter, deeper voice that feels more reminiscent of gothic rock, while the riff feel very doom metal, maybe even like some heavier occult rock.
That’s a good comparison, as the theme of magic, creation, and the life-death-rebirth cycle are the main topics of the album, like on the catchy “Circle of Eternal Becoming” and its spinning riff that also turns to something thrashier. Or on the heavy riffs and gloomy singing of “The Magic Rebirth”.
But the best song about witchcraft, the lead single of the album and the closest thing Cadaveria has to a biggest hit, is the album’s first track “Spell”. Talk about a great intro! It hooks you immediately, with its opera intro, its screams of “Beautiful witch!”. Then it turns into energetic singing that builds up to a screamed last verse. It feels like she’s reciting a poem, about casting a spell and defeating your enemies with your magic, and as she repeats, “Their projects are sen-ten-ced to fail!”. My witchcraft and horror-obsessed teenage self was all over this, and I still am.
She’s an unusual but extremely talented artist that we’re lucky to have. Of course, enjoying her album requires you to be on board with many different things: her whole goth/metal witch vibe, her unclassifiable brand of metal, with sometimes long and weird songs. Then there’s her peculiar vocal style, as she’s one of the first black metal vocalists to have used a raspy growl and some singing rather than only high shrieks. Judging by some artists I have reviewed or plan to review, that was very influential. But she’s also both an 80s metal singer and a goth rock singer, who can also growl, a deep-voiced woman who can sing very high or maybe the other way around. Her music takes a while to get used to, but once you do, there’s a lot to enjoy. It’s easy to recognize but hard to describe to someone who’s never heard it. It’s music that’s both fun to hear and to describe or analyze, and that’s what makes it so fun to review.
