Todesbonden is an American metal band that’s a bit strange and a bit difficult to describe. They’re a relatively new band and Sleep Now, Quiet Forest is the band’s debut album.

On first listen the band come across as yet another player in the field dominated by the likes of Nightwish and Within Temptation. The front woman has a rich powerful voice aka Tarja or Sharon Del Adel but with a bit more warmth and there are plenty of keyboards in the music. It’s only once you delve a little deeper into the music that things get a bit interesting and a bit strange. There’s a guitar part in second song Surya Namaskara that would fit in quite nicely on an Aghora album.  Elsewhere on the same song is a keyboard melody that sounds like it was written for a Mummy movie.

Make no mistake; this is a strange little band and not all the ideas work all the time. Still, when the band manages to successfully pull it off, like on the superb Aengus Og Fiddle, they sound completely brilliant. The song is a simple melody with a violin and kantele taking centre stage next to Laurie Ann Haus magnificent voice. Melancholic and beautiful, this is the best song on the album. In fact, it’s when the band hit the occasional metal riff that they sound common and ordinary.

This is a band that has some terrific ideas and quite clearly the talent to pull it off. However, this whole symphonic goth metal with a chick singing is so common that’s it’s difficult to really stand out with something new. It’s the same problem for Todesbonden with Sleep Now, Quiet Forest. There are some great ideas and a couple of really good songs but overall the band is content to tread the well worn path.

As far as debuts go, Sleep Now, Quiet Forest is a decent effort. The real interest for me is in seeing where the band goes from here. There’s lots of potential and the musicians are top class. For all you fans of all things Gothic, I think you’ll love this. For the rest of you, this is hardly essential. I’ll wait for the second album and you watch this space.



Label - Prophecy Productions
Year of Release - 2008