DIE VERBANNTEN KINDER EVAS — Dusk and Void Became Alive (review)

DIE VERBANNTEN KINDER EVAS — Dusk and Void Became Alive album cover

Album · 2006 · Non-Metal

4/5 · 2013-11-16
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Die Verbannten Kinder Evas is not a name you may be familiar with since this is a metal website, mainly because they are not a metal band of any shape or form, far from it in fact. You may however be familiar with the name Richard Lederer, who is most known as a member of the black metal band Summoning. This is a side project of his which he founded with fellow Summoning member Michael Gregor, who no longer performs with Die Verbannten Kinder Evas. The music is considered a mix of ambient, darkwave and neoclassical influences and features keyboards and vocals only. It’s not an album I expect many fans of metal to really appreciate but one I feel deserves a mention.

Like much ambient music the keyboards can feel distinctly minimalist, there’s a lot of focus on the vocal performance of the album, which is shred between Lederer and the only other member of the group, Christina Kroustali, aka Lady of Carnage. This is her first and so far only album with the group as Dusk and Void Became Alive is at the time of writing, still their most recent album. I generally prefer her voice to Lederer’s, whose sorrowful vocals come across as a very acquired taste. Christina's vocals tend to be operatic and beautiful however, especially on the opening title track. To be honest I don’t find that song to be overly special and since it’s nearly eight minutes long it can bore unless in the right mood and to be honest the only mood for the majority of this album is one of relaxation, even though as the cover art suggests, it's pretty dark.

The second track, Mistrust, completely changes my first opinion of the album. While the title track was droning synthesiser sounds, this one has some beautiful piano and some of Christina’s best vocals of the whole album. The song is truly beautiful. The lyrics are written by John Dowland (1563 – 1626) so this song itself is pretty ancient. The music I believe is original. This is one of two songs with lyrics by Dowland, the other being Unquiet Thoughts which is the fourth track. I’m not very keen on Lederer’s vocals on this track (it’s also the first time he sings, the first three are female vocal only), which spoils it for me, since otherwise it’s pretty decent, especially the music, which I actually find quite interesting. His vocals aren’t bad as such, it’s more of a personal preference thing. After three songs with just Christina it came as something of a surprise on my first listen, this being the first album I heard from this group. The track prior to this, Winter’s Night features music and vocals closer to the title track, but is more varied which makes it a much stronger piece of music. It shares a lyricist with the title track in Grigorii Petrenko (a friend of Lederer).

After Unquiet Thoughts Lederer’s voice appears more regularly alongside Christina’s, although by the time I’m through the near nine minute duration of Unquiet Thoughts I’ve got more used to him. I much prefer his voice on the next track, Cease to Breathe. It’s another piano heavy song. Good, but not a patch on Mistrust, which is the gem of the album, though it’s up there with the best of them. Praise Blindness Eyes follows. It has something of a medieval feel to it which I like. Lederer is at his best here vocal wise. Virtue’s Cloak reminds me of a cross between the title track and Winter’s Night. A solid track but not a favourite of mine. Vocally it is led by Christina with Lederer only coming in about half way through. Moon Muse which follows sounds almost lively at the very start and actually made me jump due to its sudden start after Virtue’s Cloak faded out. This is another highlight for me due to Christina’s vocals, although I generally prefer the piano led piece to the synthesiser ones, such as this.

The final track Catharsis is the only instrument piece of the album and the shortest of the tracks, which typically range from six minutes up in length. A piano piece it could be described as the album’s ending credits if it were film. Nice enough but not a true highlight, even if it is probably one of the most complex moments of the album.

Overall it’s a pretty solid album but quite far from a masterpiece. I much preferred some of their previous works even though I like Christina is the best female vocalist that Die Verbannten Kinder Evas have had. Since their older albums are (at the time of writing) near impossible to find on CD though, I recommend picking this one up as an alternative.

82/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (in 2010): http://metaltube.freeforums.org/die-verbannten-kinder-evas-dusk-and-void-became-alive-t1104.html)