Heavenwood - The Tarot of the Bohemians: Part One

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I always cringe when I read the words: Goth Metal. I don’t know but it’s something I have come across way too often in the last few years and it’s driving me nuts. I think the genre has been at a crossroads ever since the beginning of the 2000s with bands like MOONSPELL and THE SINS OF THY BELOVED. The genre is difficult to explain and sometimes when it says Goth Metal, it’s not exactly that. I would not consider HEAVENWOOD as a Goth Metal band persay. I think they have a lot of different genres mixed into one. I have never seen the word ‘’The’’ this much in song titles in my whole life. Being that this is going to be a three part opus, I did not know what to expect. Each song title brings a new character to the story or a focal point (‘’The Wheel of Fortune’’, ‘’Strength’’, ‘’The Chariot’’ and ‘’Justice’’) on the story itself. I felt it was a great way to introduce the audience to the characters you will hear about on the songs.

You have a lot of different styles of vocals on this one. You have the growls (probably the best part of all the vocals on this album) and you have the mid-tempo clean vocals. The clean vocals sound a bit like a poor man’s version of TIM OWENS. He hits the high notes but is quite uneven throughout the album. I think they would have benefited from vocals that were a bit deeper, like something along the lines of bands like THERION. The vocals are the centerpiece of most of the songs and when they get to the clean vocals, I feel it’s hit or miss. Sometimes I can really get into it and sometimes I feel those types of vocals don’t fit with the overall theme of a song. It’s still some pretty solid stuff, I love the storytelling on this one and the introduction of character that is portrayed on each song. I thought this was very innovative and you definitely want to learn more about these characters in the upcoming albums in this trilogy. They added some mysticism and the whole backstory is pretty awesome. I couldn’t hear much of the vocals unfortunately so I read the lyrics online. The lyrics are quite powerful and very thought provoking. The high point is the imagination of this whole story and those growling vocals are pretty awesome and on point. A very powerful release!

Songwriting: 7
Originality: 7
Memorability:7
Production: 8