Thy Shade
The Last Goodbye

I would say that American band Thy Shade look rather attractive judging by the cover artwork, and also for being fronted by a soprano voice which is something I like. But looks aren’t always correct, they can be deceiving and in the case of Thy Shade it could be seen as a sign of weakness that the best their debut album has to offer are songs not written by the band themselves. The band, I could describe them as a duo as that is what they are, one guy who plays the drums, bass and guitar while a girl does the vocals and plays the piano. So can I really put their debut album down just because the best songs are covers? Not really, as the album is great and that is also true of the songs they have written themselves.

Gothic metal is usually a term fitted to female fronted metal bands that draw inspirations from the classical music, like this band does. Their music is melodic metal with many things borrowed from the classical music, with soprano voice, with classic hymn-styled songs and strong melodies. There are some growled vocals as well, just to add another common gothic element to the composition. I think they offer us a fantastic production with a strong musical landscape; good variation and music you can easily enjoy from start to finish.

They have written eight songs of their own and added three cover songs to that. The quick mathematician then understand that their 44 minutes of playing time is divided into eleven tracks and the even cleverer mathematician can then count that the songs are on average four minutes long. Lots of numbers there but all you metalheads need to know is that all of the elven songs are good but the covers are the best. These are classically styled hymns with wonderful vocals and great feel, and they are named Adagio, Oh Divine Redeemer and Inneggiamo with the original composers named Tomaso Albinoni, Charles Gounod and Pietro Mascagni. That could be seen as a weakness but as their own compositions are really good as well, I don’t really think it is and to me the album don’t really have weaknesses.

I think Thy Shade’s debut album is an interesting one, well worth checking out which is why I recommend it. It is has a fairly fresh sound and I really like the vocals and the feel this album has to offer. I think the name Thy Shade is well worth remembering as if their debut is any indication they have fantastic things ahead of them, that is of course provided that this isn’t their last goodbye.

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