After almost two years since their 2001 promo here we are, beside the first full-lenght by Greyswan: ”Thought – Tormented Minds”... a casket of soft melodies, dreaming and charming that merge into melancholic sensations to create one of the best works in the Italian Gothic Metal scene.

Greyswan kept their promises (speaking of music) and made up a work of rare value.

The sound recalls famous bands such as Katatonia and Anathema… but Greyswan learned from the Masters only the basics of an almost forced musical style, and try their own hands on sound enrichments, thus creating personal ideas and music. What comes out is a smooth flow of notes and voice…

Eight thoughtful and nostalgic songs to tell of thoughts and feelings, collected in an opening quote (that titles the whole album): “One feels that one listening to a tought – tormented music” – James Joyce.

A cared after work, faultless and with no imperfection, that walks through “Questions”, a song with a delicate and sad sound with cadenced and prolonged riffs… slowed down rhythm…with a strong Katatonia flavour.

For those who remember their Promo 2001, we can see a revolutionary change of the already excellent “Sleepless Night”, that evolves decidedly less slowly than the previous version. “Questions”… diverse and variegated, is the pearl in the whole album…

More concentrated (and somehow reminding of Tool, at least in the first measures) and elaborated is “Lost Smiles”…that advances beside “This Gloomy Sickness” with sounds that are clearly referring to Katatonia again, but revisited with a personal taste that cancels any doubt about the personalization of the ideas.

Passing through the “frail” “We’ll Never Be”… we fly on wings of butterflies (icon of the artwork in this “Tought – Tormented Minds”, which is by the way very remarkable), on the melancholic and cadenced notes of “Witness Of A Better Time”, to softly land on the final “Afraid To Go On, Afraid To Come Back”… a screeching and enigmatic song sympathetic of a feeling of indecision and inner struggle.

An excellent work indeed that is revealed to be complex and learned… for those who love the finest ideas…

A very good one for Ebony Tears (sub-firm “gothic” of the Dutch Cold Blood Industries) that managed to get the great quality of a band that makes proud Metal Italy…

Rating: 8/10 

Sara De Vita  

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