CD Review: Closterkeller - Nero

Nero

Female fronted Goth-metal band Closterkeller are a major act in their native Poland. They're little known in the wider world, since most of their albums are sung in Polish. However, with their latest album, Nero, they're released an international version with the vocal tracks re-recorded in English. This might just expose their music to a wider audience.

While some of the earlier Polish-only albums had a quite punky feel, "Nero" has a far richer multi-layered sound. Parts of the album are very metal orientated, heavier and more riff-based than older work. The closest comparison is probably to doom-metal bands like Paradise Lost or Anathema. But they're by no means a straight metal band; the heavier songs are balanced by plenty of atmospheric material that sounds close to progressive rock. The keyboard-dominated title track in particular reminds me very much of Tangerine Dream.

Checking the liner notes for the past two albums, "Cyan" and "Graphite", I see they've gone though a lot of lineup changes; indeed the only constant factor is vocalist Anja Orthodox, her powerful yet beautiful vocals defining Closterkeller's sound. I was worried they'd lose something sung in English; but her strong Polish accent somehow gives the music an exotic appeal rather than merely sounding comical. After all, Vampires have Eastern European accents.

This review of mine originally appeared on Blogcritics some time ago, but never got posted here. That needs to be corrected