Dol Ammad
STAR TALES

June 2005
Released: 2005, Black Lotus Records
Rating: 3.0/5
Reviewer: EvilG

Self-described as “electronica - art - metal”, Dol Ammad has one main thing going for itself and that is originality. There is not a lot one can compare this to, the closest comparison would be Luca Turilli’s solo album but that would only give a partial idea of what this ambitions band is like. The faster/heavier songs are where the album shines while the dreamier artsy fartsy parts lose me.



Dol Ammad is the brainchild of synth-guru Thanasis Lightbridge. STAR TALES opens with “Dreamport” and this is not a song, just some pointless sound effects that drag on for over 3mins. Then it’s the album’s best track “Eclipse” which sounds very different with its huge choir and odd sounding drums/keys mix that almost sounds like the CD is skipping. There are no lead vocals in this song, rather the 12-part male/female choir caries the vocal melody. The more atmospheric “Weaver’s Dance” also has no lead vocals, which is the case for the entire album…there are no lead vocals on STAR TALES, the choirs do all the vocal melodies. “Boxed Daylight” (parts 1 and 2) make for forgettable background music. So goes most of the rest of the album with a style I’d prefer to call “elevator – artsy fartsy – metal”. I’m once again awoken for the track “Master of All” thanks to the more intense drumming of Alex Holzwarth (Rhapsody). Then it’s back to background filler for the remainder of the album. It’s too bad that there are no guitar solos on the album. I know this is a style of music in which some crazy shredding might not work, but some lead melody lines would not go astray. The guitar riffs are mostly simple fast picked single note and a few “chugga-chugga” parts. Not a lot of thought went into the riffing, nowhere near as much that went into to keyboards, orchestrations, choirs, and retarded sound effects tinkering along here and there all over the place.



If you LOVE keyboards, and by that I don’t mean Jens Johansson lead-styled keys but weird, experimental, tinkering crazy-ass keys, then please, by all means pick this up. I’m a big fan of Rhapsody and Luca Turilli’s solo CD, so the moments on here that reminded me of that caught my ear, but be forewarned this is not what this band is all about. Expect the unexpected, the artsy fartsy, the experimental, and expect to forget the CD is playing and to not be able to recognize most tracks from one another.