Band:	On Thorns I Lay
Album:	Angeldust
Style:	Alternative rock, Doom metal, Gothic metal
Release date:	January 25, 2002
Guest review by:	iaberis

01. Sick Screams
02. A Light in Paradise
03. Black Cold Nights
04. Angeldust
05. Moving Cities
06. Deep Thoughts
07. Independence
08. Neverending Hope

Angeldust is the fifth album of the band On Thorns I Lay. It was recorded in 2001-02 after the band returned to Greece from their studies in Romania. A phase that clearly marked the band's course and brought changes in both their line up and their way of view. The sound here is a bit different than the usual with less industrial and gothic influences; the dark and sad feeling still remains though.

Generally speaking, the music is simple, with the whole album developing over some standard riffs - something that makes the album a bit boring, since the sound remains always the same. When I say the sound, I mean the basic guitar sound which always has the same distortion, and not the whole music. You can find a variety of other interesting sound additions in the music, such as the female vocals and the violin which makes the depressing atmosphere even heavier to bear. The art work also helps in that direction, since the colors that are dominant in the booklet is the sad yellow, the cold grey and the dark black. The band with the whole concept of this album managed to pass their feelings in their music in a magnificent way. The lyrics also help the setting to that direction, since they're all about sadness, darkness and a feeling of chaos and loneliness? A great album indeed, I almost liked all the tracks, since although they sound the same, they do have something different to offer.

Something notable in this album is the song "Black Cold Nights" which contains the main violin melody of the song "ResuRection" by the Russian trance band "PPK" - a song that became a hit in the night clubs that year. Both songs were released around the same year, but I don't know to whom the original idea belongs. There's not a single reference about that in the booklet and I'm not sure to whom the actual melody belongs?

There's also a problem worth mentioning in the production of the album. Although in the tracklisting the song "Deep Thoughts" is in place 3, in the CD it's in place 6 and the sixth song went to place 3. A sign of unprofessionalism by the producer of this album. But things like that are usual for "Black Lotus Records" since it's not the first time I've noticed problems in their releases (who can forget the "Bye online all Black Lotus ..." placed on the back of another album). I'm starting to lose my faith in this label with such acts of unprofessionalism? An album comes as a piece and it's not only the sound that matters.

Apart from this mischance, "Angeldust" is a great album and it's more likely to be loved by doom metal fans, because it's similar to the early sound of Katatonia. I really loved this piece!