PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
At last the long wait for fans of Hanging Doll is almost over – the new album, “The Sacred & Profane” is due to be released on 30th April. It’s been a long wait for fans of the band – their previous album, “Reason and madness” was released in 2008. For anyone who hasn’t come across Hanging Doll yet, they are a British band from the West Midlands who play Gothic metal with female vocals. Now signed to Rocksector records they will shortly be releasing their new album.
A few brief comments on a few songs from the new album…
“Carnival of sin” is the first track to me made public, with the band releasing a video for it. Rather than my giving you my opinion of it, I suggest you watch the video and enjoy it for yourself – it’s at the bottom of the page.
“Immortal beloved” sounded very familiar the first time I listened to it, and I was right – I had heard the music before. The main part of the song is Sally singing along to a piano/keyboard, and the music is a Beethoven piece (sadly I can’t remember which one). It works very well, and just over half way through it, the rest of the band kick in and things move into a more normal Hanging Doll sound. It’s nice to see unusual ideas like this being explored and working well.
“The final descent” is quite a varied track with several changes of pace, clean male vocal introduction, great vocals from Sally, and a really good song overall.
“Bound in servitude” is a slower song and is unusual in being a duet. It’s slow ballad-like pace mixed with a rich gothic feel makes this track stand out, and is just one example of the diversity of music on the album.
The album contains thirteen songs and clocks in at an impressive 59 minutes which is good – I always feel cheated when a band releases an album that is only just over half an hour in length as a number of bands do.
One of my biggest criticisms of the last album was that there wasnt sufficient variety, particularly in the vocals. That is something that has been addressed – the new album has a lot more variety and benefits from this. I’m really impressed with this release. The previous album was good, but this really does blow it away in my opinion.
Hanging Doll’s fans are going to love this album, and more importantly I believe this album will win them a whole load of new fans.
“The Sacred & Profane” is out on 30th April via Rocksector records.
Rating: 9/10
Hanging Doll are:
Vocals – Sally Holliday
Guitars & Vocals – Daniel Leddy
Bass & Vocals – Kev Wilson
Keyboards/Piano – Aryan Amoli
Drums/Percussion – Alex Cooper
Live Guitars – Dave Cox
Track listing:
1. Cradle to the grave
2. Carnival of sin
3. Dark narcissus (The forest)
4. Lacrimosa
5. Only in my reveries
6. Immortal beloved
7. Tincture
8. The sacred and profane
9. Flames of woe
10. The final descent
11. Bound in servitude
12. The inauspicious host
13. A question of faith
