Band:	Diathra
Album:	Wistful Autumn Dance
Style:	Gothic doom metal
Release date:	December 30, 2002
A review by:	Undercraft

01. Nocturnal Bride
02. Two Candles
03. Desperate Cry
04. Come Back
05. Part Of Soul
06. Prelude II
07. Ancient Gods
08. Wisful Autumn Dance
09. Winter
10. The Cold Sunrise

I must admit, this is my first band from Belarus, and one of the first releases from Russian label, Stygian Crypt Productions. My first impression were really good, since the cover art is very cool, sadly, the booklet design is quite boring, but after you bought it and open it there's no turning back right?

Anyway, don't be fooled by the negative intro, because I do like this band, the play a mixture of Doom-Death Metal with some elements of Gothic Metal and a tight musical direction, specially in the guitars and keyboards.

Vocals duties are divided between a deep growl and a nice female voice, sounds familiar? Yes, tons of bands are doing that nowadays, ten years ago a woman in a extreme band was totally rare, now is a common thing to have a back up or lead female vocalist.

Anyway, as I was saying, musically the band does a terrific job, maybe my only complain is the growling, is to deep and undecipherable, like the kind of vocals you would use in a Brutal Death Metal band, but I guess these guys made their choice, and it doesn't bother me that much.

The Cd starts with "Nocturnal Bride" a nice song, with killer keyboards and excellent guitar leads, "Two Candles" uses the Gothic influences I was talking before, Some other different yet killer songs are "Come Back", where piano and female vocals are the only instrument used. Haunting and beautiful, "Prelude II" is an instrumental piece with neoclassical influences, here we can notice that the guitarist has been listing Yngwie Malmsteen lately.

This is a fine Cd, maybe I don't like the vocals that much, but musically is a fine example of what these guys can do, I hope that their next Cd contains much more surprise than this, so better watch out for Diathra.