Band:	Angellore
Album:	La Litanie Des Cendres
Style:	Atmospheric doom metal, Gothic doom metal
Release date:	August 24, 2015
Guest review by:	Gothic Metalhead

01. A Shrine Of Clouds
02. Still Glowing Ashes
03. Twilight's Embrace
04. Inertia
05. Moonflower

What better way to return from my long-overdue break from writing reviews than to review another gothic metal album with no review.

Good gothic metal music is hard to come by, and powerful gothic metal music is incredibly rare to find for me. Certainly, Trees Of Eternity was one such band. Angellore, despite leaning towards a Draconian/Theatre Of Tragedy direction, blew me away with their second album (known as La Litanie Des Cendres) and how it took me this long to finally listen to this modern masterpiece. Angellore, a band born from the flourishing country of France, got their name from a song of the same name off Tristania's Widow's Weeds. Their sound again has that gothic doom approach that too many have, but something about this album really hit me. La Litanie Des Cendres really felt like a real gothic metal album that followed the roots of that direction.

As the listener would expect, the music is very atmospheric. The way the band utilizes depressing key structures is what makes this album so good; the chord progression and tone are melancholic, with the band making great use of string instruments for added mournful textures. The doom elements are not overpowering either, as most of the music is not too slow in tempo, and even when it is, it is done in a convincing mood where the keyboards and guitars really shine. A lot of its atmospheric keyboards are reminiscent of Moonspell and Tiamat, something which has been lost considering that most keyboards in gothic metal today are not even gothic, but symphonic. The guitars even mix things by not just using doom power chords, but also gothic rock patterns in some songs, such as the opening track "A Shrine Of Clouds." It really has the best of both worlds of doom and gothic, and the keys are where the music really leans into that aforementioned melancholic sound. This album is an epic, and its closing track "Moonflower" is a huge mountain of melancholy that almost rivals Draconian's epic "Death, Come Near Me".

The vocal department has the standard beauty and the beast direction. However, the important thing to note is unlike most of Angellore's contemporaries, it's less operatic and more ethereal, which stays true to that Theatre Of Tragedy approach. I really felt the dynamic difference between singers, Lucia's beautiful ethereal vocals and Rosarius's depressive harsh vocals, and when accompanied with the music's key signatures, it really does sound beautiful and atmospheric. However, with Rosarius's vocals, he brings clean vocals into the mix and doesn't go crazy with his gutturals, which are performed phenomenally. The lyrics are also very melancholic and have a great deal of yearning all over. Yearning is an emotion that Lucia exceptionally shows in her vocals and diction. A lot of the lyrics are well-written and structured to have some catchy hooks, with "Inertia" having a catchy chorus followed by empowering piano.

Angellore's La Litanie Des Cendres is their best album without a doubt and rose to become one of my favorite albums of the 2010s. Sure, it may not have the originality that some people like myself expect, but the important thing is making powerful music and that's what this album did. Angellore stuck to their vision and made a release that will give listeners not only beautiful music but nostalgia for the very best of gothic metal during a time in which gothic metal is at its most feeble. This album establishes Angellore as one of the flag bearers of the genre alongside Tribulation and Unto Others.