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Artist: Hanging Doll |
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There have been a couple of real eye openers both on the CD front and live shows this year and one band in particular that really sent shivers down my spine when I saw them live for the first time was Birmingham’s Hanging Doll. They just blew me and my fellow colleagues away at this years Rock Of Ages festival and then again at the Dames Of Darkness II Festival, both held at Birmingham’s Asylum venue. The band deliver a great blend of Symphonic and Power Metal which has been described as Dark Orchestral, and although the genre has been dominated by the rest of Europe, so much so that we in Britain are just finding our feet in the genre and one a band at the forefront of this British attack are without a doubt Hanging Doll. Their debut release is such a dynamic album that you’d think this was the bands forth or fifth not their first. The album gets underway the intro and title track ‘Reasons And Madness’ and from here on in it's pure class all the way, as the album really gets started with the superb ‘Blood Ridden Skies’. This is where the band really show what they are made of with a heady bass and drum line interwoven with subtle keyboards, then the track really takes off with Sally Holliday’s delightfully soulful vocals and the hard soaring gothic guitars of Daniel Leddy, who also adds a contrasting gruff backing vocal to Holliday’s and the result is quite astounding. Some might say a little Nightwish at times but this isn’t a bad thing in my opinion. The album just grows into a monstrous gothic masterpiece with Holliday at the helm as the album continues with one of my favourites off the album ‘Hope Springs Eternal’, with a towering double kick assault of Alex Cooper really giving the track a real power trip. Along with some thunderous bass lines from Wilson, this what the British Symphonic Metal scene has been waiting for, a band that can match the song writing and musical might of the Nightwish's and Within Temptation's of the Euro scene. The band have a massive massive sound that just explodes from the CD as each track unfolds to out do its predecessor, but track of the album for me has to be the majestic dark and light tones of ‘Echoes Of Sorrow’, with its orchestrated string section leading the way for some of Holliday’s finest vocals on the entire album whose duet with bassist Wilson is just excellent. No band of this genre would put out and album without a few epics and Hanging Doll are no different, the album boasts three tracks over seven minutes long the longest coming in at just over ten minutes. The first of these epic pieces is 'Forlorn', again a tribute to the bands song writing capabilities this haunting melody just excels passion and grace and if wasn’t for ‘Echoes of Sorrow’, this would be my personal favourite, but Echoes Of Sorrow' just pips it for splendour. The band aren’t afraid to pick up the tempo now and again and they really go to town on the ‘Twist Of A Deity’, with Daniel Leddy and Holliday sharing vocal duties on this one, with Leddy’s more angst death metal vocals adding that something more menacing to the song. A complete contrast to the majestic tones of Holliday. The second of
those epic pieces is ‘Iniquity’, a real gentle refrain that really
brings out the best in the band, then the album closer the ten minute
luminosity of ‘Silence In Solitude’, which rounds off one of the
best debut albums I’ve heard in the genre and one that will surely see
the band in good stead when the festival season comes round. I
really do think the likes of Wacken and Sweden Rocks are just around the
corner for this band and I’m so glad to have caught the band live
twice this year as it shows that not all is lost in the British Isles,
we can still produce some quite outstanding bands and Hanging Doll are
destined for greatness as long as they take it all their stride and are
not overcome with the bright lights and keep their feet firmly planted
in reality. |
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Tracklisting: |
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