Band:	Midnattsol
Album:	Where Twilight Dwells
Style:	Folk metal, Gothic metal
Release date:	January 2005

01. Another Return
02. Lament
03. Unpayable Silence
04. Haunted
05. Desolation
06. Enlightenment
07. Tårefall
08. Infinite Fairytale
09. På Leting
10. Dancing With The Midnight Sun
11. Tapt Av Håp

Midnattsol is the last new combo from Norway and "Where Twilight Dwells" is their first release through the Austrian label Napalm Records. Midnattsol [read midnight sun] plays a nice Gothic music with some Folk influcences. I say with "Folk Influences" because for sure this is not Folk Metal, we are more into Gothic Metal but however that's not really hard to have the feeling that the band wants to give a nice touch to their music and for sure some acoustic and traditional instruments are perfect to give nice melodies. Anyway, Folk or not, this album is one of the first good surprise when it comes to talk about the best newcomers of this beginning of the year 2005? And now of course you'll know why?

The first original point of the band is the female singer, Carmen Elise Espanaes. No no, you're not dreaming, Carmen is the little sister of Live Kristine, the famous Norwegian singer. The first thing that I can say is that this Carmen is not trying to usurpate the name of the family she is a really good singer and you could feel some similitude with her sister. Of course she don't have the same voice than Liv but really she is promising, and I'm sure when I see her work on this album that we will hear a lot about her in the future. A nice career is starting?
Musically, Midnattsol is a really good combo of Gothic Metal but evidently with a little touch of Folk which gives all its originality to the band. To sum up, you could find a lot of really nice guitars riffs but with in general a fast tempo. This is not insistent, at the opposite there are a lot of double bass drums beats, but don't worry this is not Death metal, all that is really melodic, and the melodies are all really catchy. And plus the ambiances of each songs are really sad, but we will always feel something beautiful in it, that's really poetic.
The other originality comes from the vocals and especially the lyrics which can be in English but also in Norwegian and that's really interesting when it comes to the folk parts of the music. Some songs like "Tårefall", or the great "Tapt Av Håp" are certainly among the best of the album. Midnattsol is a very good band especially for it acoustics ballads. When I said before that the band has some Folk elements in its music, that's certainly because of all these acoustic parts. Folk guitars drive some songs and even if the choruses sound sometime a bit heavier, the melodies are really folk and evidently all that give some deep to this "Where Twilight Dwells" which was already really good in reason of its nice Gothic aspect.
The production of the album is good and clean, the voice of Carmen figures perfectly with all the others instruments. That's a nice job, and we must congratulate the band for this effort.

With its nice acoustic folk parts, this album of Gothic Metal is a really nice surprise. One can say that Midnattsol did a really nice and promising start, and I'm sure that a lot of you will love this epic album. I recommend you all this really new release from Norway if you like good Gothic Metal. A promising band that we will have to follow, a really good start for this year 2005?