Estatic Fear - A Sombre Dance (1999)

Estatic Fear's (Estatic being a combination of ecstatic and esthetic) roots date back to the mid 90's when the band was formed around 1994 in Linz, Austria and together this four piece created, 'Somnium Obmutum' in '96, but just a few years later band leader, Calix Miseriae (AKA Matthias Kogler) found himself alone and along with a host of session musicians he released, 'A Sombre Dance' in '99.

If you think back to the late 90's the whole Gothic/doom metal sound with backing soprano female vocals and growled male vocals was pretty darn huge, but Estatic Fear was one that stepped out of the crowd and did something different. Looking back about ten years ago when I bought this album I remember I picked it up after hearing it was similar sounding in style with Empyrium and Tristania, but little did I know that it was even better.

Divided into nine chapters plus an intro, 'A Sombre Dance' is a fair mixture of that ever so popular Gothic/Doom metal sound from the late 90's with strong classical and folk related characteristics. Matthias himself handles all electric and classical guitars, keyboards and piano, while seven session musicians perform cello, flute, female vocals, lute, drums and both growled and screamed male vocals. Interestingly just about every song makes use of these additions too, which results in an utterly beautiful, but often times melancholic experience.

The atmosphere of the record is phenomenal too, though it varies, because during the softer purely classical/folk moments you may feel a very romantic or the aforementioned melancholy feelings, but during the heavier doom parts you may even feel inclined to bang your head, slowly, but its death/doom metal all the way when these parts come about. The electric guitar plays an important part in the overall feelings as well since even the heavy riffs hold a strong sense of misery within them, just as I like and expect this brand of doom metal to do.

The vocals, which I already briefly mentioned appear as heavenly angelic female vocals, low guttural death metal roars and screechy black metal rasps are all performed flawlessly and fit within the music perfectly.

It's a bit hard to pick favorites since in a way all ten songs flow into each other as one long forty nine minute opus, but I must say, 'Chapter I,IV and VII just define excellence. I should point out though that this album is probably more classical/folk than metal, but nevertheless I do adore it.

Unfortunately, 'A Sombre Dance' has proven to be Estatic Fear's last record as nothing has come out of Matthias since then, but its been said that roughly two records worth of material has been written, but he just hasn't had time to record it yet. Perhaps with their contemporaries in Empyrium recently reforming it will spark the motivation for Matthias to reunite and finally record this alleged material. Time shall tell, but hopefully he wont make us wait much longer as I'm sure I'm not the only one that has been waiting over a decade for something new.