Band:	Lethian Dreams
Album:	Bleak Silver Streams
Style:	Atmospheric doom metal
Release date:	June 08, 2009
A review by:	Lucas

01. Elusive
02. In Seclusion
03. Under Her Wings
04. Requiem
05. Severance
06. For A Brighter Death

Lethian Dreams plays an atmospheric form of Doom metal in the same line as My Dying Bride, Draconian and November's Doom. To me, that means this is essentially Shape Of Despair-light, and Shape Of Despair is in essence Funeral Doom-light, which in return translates to awesome-light. And third-rate awesomeness is, well, not all that awesome.

After the initial spoken word intro, a sugary sweet woman sings of sleep and wasted beauty and darkness. Her voice is quite reminiscent of Audrey Sylvain of Alcest fame, although the vocals relish in a completely different environment. Like silver streams they flow through the gothic-y melodic and easy-going Doom. The male vocals are mostly clean and despairing, I can't help but saying "like Aaron Stainthorpe", and fortunately refrain from going into the cliché male growl / clean female duet too often. People need to stop doing that.

It's not all that bad though. If you can overcome the lack of originality and the abundance of clichés (and many metal fans are quite gifted in this department) it is surely an enjoyable release. Not on the same level of My Dying Bride or Shape Of Despair for example, but enjoyable nonetheless. In other words: it will please the fan but won't convince the outsider. They have something going for them but their ideas need to exploited much better than they are right now. My guess is that they will get there, probably two or three albums down the road.