Sunday, August 4, 2013

The Cemetary Girlz - Opus Vitae (2013)

The Cemetary Girlz 
Opus Vitae
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Manic Depression Records
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I like The Cemetary Girlz since their early days. I like their contagious Death Rock songs with Punk-Glam taste, and that decadent vibe in their sound; definitely they a very interesting band from the Death Rock scene of the New Millennium. They have experienced some lineup changes through the years. Now they are a trio, their style is consolidated and well defined, and they have shown vision and musical evolution in this new album. “Opus Vitae” has some notorious musical contributions to the sound of Cemetary Girlz: It goes from influences of the original 80’s Death Rock, the Death Rock sound of the New Millennium, Gotha Billy, Gothic-Post Punk, and even some interesting dark passages of Post Rock. They have done a really good album; I like a lot the visual concept, it matches really well to the music. The Cemetary Girlz are back with their darkest record.

“Les filles du cimetiere” is a clear demonstration of the new sounds which they have been creating. The obscure serenity in the beginning transforms into an obsessive storm of fast rhythm, and it just vanishes in the shadows at the end.”Dracula is a cannibal” comes with the gloomy horror-paraphernalia, and it bursts into a well crafted piece of good-old Gothabilly. This one has great work in the keyboards section.”Smoke my brain” is Death Rock-Punk with vertiginous rhythm, is really exciting. “Chupacabra” is very interesting, it has great rhythm and it has strong influence of 80’s Post Punk. “Los vampiros bandidos” shows a different perspective of their Death Rock style, it predates to the listener and finally explodes at the end. “La mort du cadavre” is gloomy Death Rock with whispered vocals in the background. This one sounds really good! “Pen of blood” is pretty catchy Death Rock, the rhythm section is doing a great work here: Vigorous drumming and dominating-rhythmic bass lines. The guitar and the voice are pretty smooth, with a good melodic sense.”La malediction” is in the same track of the previous song: Pretty fine Death Rock sound with great transitions.”Opus Vitae” evokes anxiety and mental turmoil at the beginning; they have added some great melodic transitions, which just save you of falling into a void. “Brouillon de vie” is quite dark, it made think of Shadow Project for some moment. They have added some Post Rock elements here, and this one has unique sound. “Funebra” is Cemetary Girlz doing some really dark Gothic Rock, and they did this with majesty: Really awesome track! ”Death is coming” has a very appropriate sound for such title, is like a march to your doom. “La nuit” is a quite good mixture of Post Punk, and atmospheric sound. They have created great contrasts in the music and the mood, through the transitions.”The trees are still sad” is captivating, sounds like some gloomy-sinister version of Alcest; I really like this one. And finally we have the demo version of “Opus Vitae”, which is interesting. “Opus vitae” is a notorious album; this is about a band expanding their musical frontiers, evolving and experiencing with different sounds and music styles. The result is quite good: They have done a great work.

Daniel Olvera