Gothic Metal – especially the low budget kind from central-Europe - tends to get a bit of a bum deal amongst the metal circles, and is almost treated like some sort of “second-rate” citizen when compared to other styles within the scene – especially guilty of this is the mainstream music press. It’s because of this that I try to keep an open mind – I like Gothic Metal – and it always gives me great pleasure when an album comes along within the genre that I can rave about.

Sadly, for every “Arcane Rain Fell” or “The Phantom Agony” (those wholesome and brilliant middle-fingers to the nay-sayers) there comes along an album like “Graceful Tunes” – full of the clichéd things that give yet MORE ammunition to the detractors of the Gothic Metal genre.

Unfortunately, all the very worst elements are here. Tinny, lifeless production. Weak Guitars. Those cheap and nasty sounding keyboards. You name it, it’s here. The growling male vocals and the accompanying female vocals are actually fairly adequate in places – but in essence totally wasted when accompanying something akin to a Bontempi Keyboard. The song writing is fair but un-memorable, making the album quite an arduous task to listen to in one whole sitting.

One stroke of genius comes with the catchy, self-titled track “Graceful Tunes” – hailed as the single and already with an accompanying music video – but sadly, comparing it to the rest of the material on the album, one can’t help thinking all the budget and effort was put into one song and the rest was left to flounder!

This is all such a shame as the band’s previous effort “Lost Time” was a brilliant and original slab of Gothic Rock that - despite being raw around the edges - showed great promise. With “Graceful Tunes” I’m just left wondering what on earth went wrong?

Standout Tracks:  Graceful Tunes, Confusion.

Overall Score:   6 /10