STYLE..... Neofolk
LABEL.... Nielozilla
REL.DATE... Mar-21-2009
After an absence of 5 years the well known German neofolk band Dies Natalis are back with a new album named "The Phoenix Contradiction". Or so it seems. But it is not exactly the same band. Two of the original members of Dies Natalis, Norbert Strahl and Alexander Meier have started the band Seelenthron in 2005, and released two wonderful albums with it. This incarnation of Dies Natalis is led by Sylvia Schmidt and Tobias Strahl, who have invited a whole bunch of guest musicians under the moniker Dies Natalis & Friends. Not much has changed though. One could perhaps state that the great folk songs on this album sound more mature and the vocals are even more passionate than before. The songs are divided into the ones written by Dies Natalis themselves and into traditionals, martial elements have completely vanished and instead there is more room for avant-garde experiment processed into short intermezzos which are mostly created by the Portuguese musicians Paulo Rinhola and Jorge Mantas. Furthermore various other musicians have been involved in this recording. It has resulted into a great album with beautiful emotional folk songs, like "Ride On", "Black is the Colour", "Angels of Babylon" and "Road to Monsuraz", that will please every connoisseur of quality neofolk music.
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