[Reviewed by stark]
It’s good to see Dahlia’s Tear is back, because I really thought he would be gone for good. It’s been six years since “Dreamsphere”, and while such a long gap between full length albums isn’t anything unusual, the artists remained active during that time, playing live, collaborating with other musicians and so on. Svartsinn, Kammarheit are the first examples that come to my mind.
Yet Anile and his Dahlia have simply vanished in thin air. And somewhere in the deep corner of my heart I felt sadness, even though there was a lot of other great music around. All this because Dahlia’s sounds always were extremely efficient on both cinematic and emotional levels. Few artists manage to achieve it indeed, yet it’s not a standard within the kingdom of electronic music.
I remember when I got his first album from the late Ulvberth from Ravenheart Productions over ten years ago and read its title: “Harmonious Euphonies For Supernatural Traumas Mesmerising Our Existences In Radient Corpuscle Galaxies”. I thought: “With this title it will be either brilliant, either totally unlistenable, no third option”. Expecting some cosmic black metal I played it for the first time and… it stayed with me for years to come. And “Voyage & Calaquendi” remains one of the most evocative tunes I’ve ever heard.
What struck me then and strikes me now is how Anile can find balance, the golden key between what can be called the aural reflection of the journeys through fantasy realms and this more introverted and personal touch, the story of one’s lost love, the soundtrack to your failures.
He has always had a tendency for these flamboyant titles, which one may find pretentious – this is the element of the whole Dahlia’s Tear entourage since the very beginning, but you don’t need to focus on them, follow their story while listening. It may serve as an alternative “Skyrim” soundtrack with all these misty soundscapes, field recordings, female vocals and whispers projecting the image of enchanted woods and snow covered mountain peaks. On the other hand the sorrowful yet intimate piano melodies and the overwhelming melancholic feeling move some tender strings in my heart, make me think of my past, the wrong choices I made. Both layers of Dahlia’s Tear fit me very well.
Emotions are the key, without them, the technical proficiency means nothing. And emotions are always on the forefront when it comes to this Swedish project. Back then, on the raw sounding album of this extremely long and peculiar title and today on this perfectly produced “Through The Nightfall Grandeur”. Long live Dahlia’s Tear.
Dahlia’s Tear – Through The Nightfall Grandeur
Cryo Chamber, CRYO 104
CD/Digital 2018
Santa Sangre 