Band: Your Shapeless Beauty
Album: My Swan Song (Adipocere Records)
Year: 2003
Website: http://www.yourshapelessbeauty.net
Rating: 8.5/10

Formed in 1994, YSB is inspired by metal, black, death, doom and classical music, creating a depressive, dark death metal style with shrieked and growled vocals that is aggressive yet incorporates melody and classical interludes with clean vocals.

The added keyboard arrangements sit nicely in the background to build on the atmosphere without drowning the aggressiveness of the album. I haven't heard any of the previous YSB albums so I can't really compare them, but if there anything like this I will be looking to buy them.

YSB are one of a few French metal bands that are known outside of their native country and hearing this, it is easy to see why. There wide range of influences make this an interesting and enjoyable listen from start to finish. One of the most original albums i've heard so far this year. Another good release (yet again) by Adipocere.

Band: Ywolf
Album: Night of the Werewolf (Adipocere Records)
Year: 2003
Website: http://members.lycos.co.uk/ywolf/Ywolf/ywolf.html
Rating: 7.5/10

This is the follow up to last years album "Trilogy of the Night".

The good news is this is significantly better than before, a lot more atmospheric, darker and more gothic sounding. This is not a heavy CD, so it will probably not interest people looking for that, but the very minimal use of guitar and drum, more use of keyboard, synth, and other folk instruments creates a good v's evil feel to it and is an interesting listen, the only thing is you have to be in the mood, it's not one of those you want to put on all the time.

So, again I recommend you listen to it before you rush out and buy. From what I can make out, this is the second part of a trilogy, the next part should be out sometime in 2004. Very interesting, there isn't a single band that comes to mind when listening to this.

Band: Ywolf
Album: Trilogy of the Night (Adipocere Records)
Year: 2002
Website: http://members.lycos.co.uk/ywolf/Ywolf/ywolf.html
Rating: 6.5/10

There is no doubt that Gabriel Wolf is a musical genius. This latest effort is with Ywolf, a very dark gothic / Folk music with NO guitars.

I couldn’t believe it when I saw what was next to his name, Harp, koto, violin, cello, pizzicato, zymbalom, dulcimer, flute and a lot more instruments I have never heard of.

At first listen I was very disappointed without no guitars, but the more I listened to it the more I realized that it didn’t need any guitars, and the amount of time and talent it must of took to create this, it really is like listening to some sort of symphonic orchestra or something with a mixture of Type O Negative and CoF style vocals.

OK, its not going to be to everyone’s liking, hell it probably isn’t going to sell millions of copies, but this has opened my eyes to a totally different style of music. Thanks to Adipocere for sending it and thanks to musical genius Gabriel Wolf. One that you should try and listen to before you buy.