Band:	The Old Dead Tree
Album:	The Nameless Disease
Style:	Gothic metal
Release date:	2003
A review by:	Undercraft

01. We Cry As One
02. It Can't Be!
03. How Could You?
04. Won't Follow Him
05. It's The Same For Everyone
06. Somewhere Else
07. Joy & Happiness
08. Transition
09. Quietly Kissing Death
10. All...
11. The Bathroom Monologue

Is just amazing how come some bands can surprise you, and what I mean by this is that I listen to a LOT of bands every month, and no one manages to surprise me anymore, I mean, so I can go Wow! this is a fuckin' great band! They play well, but this has been done by zillion other bands before. So to come across a band that redefines a genre or creates a new one is rare. But this is the case of The Old Dead Tree, despite the strange name this band really rocks!

Their label (Season Of Mist) defines them as Gothic Metal, and they're right because it's the genre that most resemble the music of The Old Dead Tree. We have here a very sad album, with feelings of loss and despair, but at the same time full of anger and angst.

How do they manage to create such an atmosphere? Because they don't created it, it's there, the feelings, the anger, the melancholy, it's all there. This album is dedicated and written to honor the memory of the former drummer of the band, (Frédéric Guillemot 1977 - 1999) his suicide marked the band deeply, and all the songs are dealing with his suicide.

The first track "We Cry As One" has chunky guitar riffs, great clean and death vocals, courtesy of Manuel Munoz, the excellent singer of this band, the range of this song goes to dark Gothic Rock to some really kick ass Death Metal parts, all wrapped in a somber and sad atmosphere. Other killer songs are "It Can't Be" with a very catchy chorus, "How Could You" with powerful and melancholic lyrics, "It's The Same For Everyone" one of the most depressing songs in the album, and "Quietly Kissing Death" with a more "commercial" approach to the music.

The only problem with this record, is that some songs tend to go a little ? lengthy, to much useless instrumental parts, but let me set straight for the records, that this happens only in a few songs, and despite this record is incredible, a must-have for all fans of Gothic metal and depressive music at all, definitively one of the biggest surprises this year. I'll bet that Frédéric is proud of these guys, wherever he is right now.