GEDANKEN

Since I listened VIA OBSCURA'S debut Traum instantly became a fan of the band, the ethereal voice of Anne Thinius that gives me goosebumps, added to the solid bass of Andre Manke plus the accurate percussion and Steve Hackett inspired guitar of Alexander Thinius, makes of this trio a great ensemble.

Unfairly catalogued as Goth, the band started their career as some sort of oneiric Symphonic project with heavy fugues in their first album, and they follow that path in the second release Gedanken, where they lost some of the naive darkness, but gain in experience and a more developed sound with excellent orchestral arrangements.

In Traum Anne was amazing in the vocals, but now she has also grown as a keyboardist creating a Baroque sound that reminds me of Symphonic Metal bands, but Alexander avoids shredding in order to focus more in atmospheres, so the band maintains they're Classical / Symphonic / Gothic sound that made them well known and respected. .

It's hard to make a song by song review, because Gedanken is created in such way that each track fits perfectly where they are as a piece of a puzzle, but still I have to mention the impressive Dreck where the amazing intro doesn't prepare the listener for the atmospheric music that follows.

Another favorite is Wind mainly because of Anne's vocals in German, proving that artists from this part of the world should chose their native language rather and an artificial English with heavy accent. Simply delightful.

And of course I must mention the opener Moment with that dreamy atmosphere that seems to be the band's trademark, with soft transitions instead of radical changes, but perfectly elaborate with no weak passages.

I could go on with every song, but would take me hours and could ruin the listener's experience with cheap words that can't describe the unique style of VIA OBSCURA, a band that I hope will keep releasing more albums in the next years.

Now comes the difficult rating, because if I hadn't listened their brilliant debut, I would go with 5 stars, but being that Gedanken is slightly less impressive than Traum (Which I rated with a perfect 5), will have to go with 4 stars that would be 4.5 if the system allowed this.

Still, we're talking about a record that is half step from being a masterpiece, and deserves a place in any musical collection..