Warthur
Taking their death-tinged gothic metal style into a somewhat more cybernetic and spacey direction (thanks, in no small part, to Stefan Hertrich's electronic contributions), Darkseed when they recorded this album were reduced to a trimmed-down lineup of Hertrich and two guitarists (with former member Willi Wurm providing drums here solely in a guest capacity), but this first album since the departure of their longterm bassist Rico Galvagno is sufficiently successful on a technical level that it's no surprise that the group put out a few more albums with this trimmed-down lineup before fleshing their numbers out again in the mid-2000s. Gothic metal fans who like a little sci-fi with their eyeliner may enjoy this one; at the same time, when you get past the keyboard embellishments this really is middle-of-the-road gothic metal with few real surprises, and consequently those who are a bit pickier about their goth-metal may find it underwhelmimg.