Year: 2020
Total Time: 01:00:20
Label: Inverse Records
SOMBRIA are a multinational group with members from Greece, Norway and Mexico and can be regarded essentially as the child of “our own” Dimitra Vintsou, known as Dimi De San from her years at CAELESTIA and now in her new band under the name “Valentina Devin”. So Valentina Devin in collaboration with Raven Seven formed SOMBRIA, who this year released their debut album “Chirographon Dei”.
The band consists of another three masked musicians (as well as the aforementioned two) who, apart from their masks and nicknames, appear without any other substantial information about them. The genre they deal with is a dark, melodic, symphonic, gothic branch of Metal, obviously female fronted. The album consists of nine compositions, in which the music is written by Raven Seven, while all the lyrics are written by Valentina Devin. All the songs were recorded and mixed by Raven Seven in his own personal studio.
And while all of the above necessarily make you think of NIGHTWISH and you are basically waiting to hear another band with female vocals that may or may not try to steal something of their glory, finally SOMBRIA manage to pleasantly surprise you! Yes, of course there are some similarities and some references but unlike the Finns, here there is darkness, there is an evocative atmosphere, there is something that puts you deep in the Gothic mystery they want to present to you.
The compositions are smart, catchy and you want to hear them again as they stay in your mind. The introductory “Voyage Into Lethe” quickly introduces you to the world of the band, while “Black December”, “Ballet Of Sadness”, “Wine Of Lunacy” and “Poem From The Dark Gardens” highlight all the melancholic grandeur of the album. Dimi De San’s vocals are very beautiful, as dramatic and operatic as they should be and they tie in perfectly as a whole.
By appearing in festivals and concerts with big names such as KATATONIA, ARCH ENEMY, INSOMNIUM and DRACONIAN and by both the main members of the band having plenty of personal experience and a very beautiful debut album now escorting them, it is almost certain that they will occupy us a lot in the future.
Rating: 7/10
Editor: Fanouris Exintavelonis
Related Link: SOMBRIA – Bandcamp Page
