Band:	Mortal Love
Album:	I Have Lost...
Style:	Gothic metal
Release date:	April 25, 2005
Guest review by:	Gothic Metalhead

01. Existence
02. Serenity
03. Spine
04. Adoration
05. Senses
06. Empathy
07. Reality
08. Sanity
09. Identity
10. Hope
11. Memory
12. Everything

Mortal Love is without a doubt one of my favorite gothic metal bands of all time. While many would consider their sound to be another copycat of The Gathering, this band manages to impress me with a fresh take on the cliches that plagued the gothic metal genre during the 2000s.

I was introduced to Mortal Love through an online friend who loved a lot of the notoriously named "female fronted" metal bands, had noticed my growing love for the gothic metal genre and showed me this album, I Have Lost..., which I will be talking about now. After releasing a somewhat decent debut in All The Beauty..., Mortal Love improved on their sound, wrote better music, and in the end released an album where every song was nothing short of spectacular. For those who are sick of seeing the growing number of these kinds of bands, this album as well as their final album Forever Will Be Gone is a must-listen.

What makes this album so unique compared with the many gothic metal bands that have a female lead singer? One obvious reason is the performance of lead singer Catherine Nyland. Something about her tone and the way she sings is so unique and empowering. It sounds almost pop-influenced and classically trained, yet very breathy and angelic. Her voice sounds thin just so that tone can relate to the atmosphere of the entire album. Nyland manages to sound like she's yearning with the way she uses her diction and dynamic range, and I like how she's sounding like herself and not like the many copycats of Anneke Van Giersbergen.

The musical structure of I Have Lost... is also unorthodox for the genre. While most of Mortal Love's contemporaries follow the gothic doom direction taking their time, blatantly sounding like The Gathering/Theatre Of Tragedy, or sounding too symphonic, I Have Lost... is faster than the average 2000s gothic metal album. There are definitely slow moments, but thankfully the music is full of life. The tempos are fast or mid-paced and follow some basic rock beats and tempos. The best example is in "Senses", which is the fastest song in the album, yet very melodic and blissful. There's also a smart inclusion of breakdowns. While the breakdown is not my favorite musical structure in metal, this is meant to give room for the vocals and the keyboards, like in the song "Empathy." In fact, the guitars have unique sounds, especially when they start some of their songs that give this music a range of accessibility and obscurity. Yes, there are keyboards on this album, but they are used sparingly and at the right moments to accompany the vocals or establish the beginning and the end of each song without overusing sustained chords. All of these qualities help to make Mortal Love a standout act from their contemporaries.

The lyrics of I Have Lost... are romantic throughout. They would continue the lyrical themes of yearning, love, and death from the previous album. While it is nothing new to provide to the genre, Mortal Love uses some sophisticated choice of words. Some are simple and straight, while the majority of the lyrics are full of emotional depth, with the greatest examples being in songs like "Existence', "Senses", and "Sanity".

There have been few albums that have impressed me on first listen where one song after the other was spectacular, and Mortal Love's I Have Lost... did just that. It's not a perfect album, and while they have similarities to other gothic metal bands, this is the band's best work and standout release. They managed to do things that were different from their contemporaries and hopefully be an album where it gets much attention.