Band:	Heavenwood
Album:	The Tarot Of The Bohemians: Part 1
Style:	Gothic doom metal
Release date:	February 22, 2016
Guest review by:	tominator

01. The Juggler
02. The High Priestess
03. The Empress
04. The Emperor
05. The Pope
06. The Lovers
07. The Chariot
08. Justice
09. The Hermit
10. The Wheel Of Fortune
11. Strength
12. The Hanged Man

Heavenwood is one of those bands that haven't made an album yet that has me disappointed in any way. Sure, some of their albums like Diva and Abyss Masterpiece are overall stronger albums than Redemption, in my opinion, but they always have a level of quality in their music, which I really love. In 2016 we got their latest record, The Tarot Of The Bohemians: Part 1 - and what a record it is!

Let me start by saying that I like this album as much as I like Abyss Masterpiece. The overall quality of this record is just excellent. But what can you exactly expect from this record?

First of all, there are the vocals, which are tremendous. Both Ernesto and Ricardo did some amzing performances on this album, growls and clean vocals all done really well. They always have had good chemistry and this record is another example of that.

Guitars are as heavy as you would expect from a band like Heavenwood. There are some great riffs on this album. On top of that we've got some great drum and bass work. Daniel Cardoso did most of the drumming on this album, except for two songs ("The Wheel Of Fortune" and "The Lovers"), which were done by Franky Costanza, and one song ("The Juggler") done by Eduardo Sinatra. Even though there are three different drummers on this album, it still remains very consistent. All three of them give a very good performance on this album, to the point that I didn't realize the first time I listened to the album that it wasn't just one drummer.

The production quality is really good. Everything is well-mixed. Bass and drums get the attention they deserve while guitars stay prominent on the record. All of the vocals sound good. It's easy to drown out vocals in doom and gothic metal, but they found the right balance on this album.

Another thing that I like is the concept of the album, which is very original. I had my doubts if the concept would stay interesting throughout the whole album, but it definitely did. There is an overall energy to this album which I usually don't find in other doom metal and gothic metal albums. It's really nice.

A small nitpick would be some of the orchestral and choir parts on some of the songs. Some I really like and others I'm not really a fan of. One example would be "Frithiof's Saga"; the opening of the song is a bit disappointing to me (once the song kicks in, it is really awesome). Things like that rarely happen throughout this record, though.

Overall it's a very consistent album with a very high production quality and an interesting concept. I definitely recommend it.