Suicidal Romance – Love Beyond Reach

Release date: 08-06-2007, Label: Infacted Records
By: Nina Mende

Suicidal Romance was formed in April 2004 in Tallinn (Estonia) by Dmitry Ivanov.
All started from a track “Cold Kiss” that was written without any purpose, just for pure fun, but after receiving positive feedback it was decided to start a whole project. 2005 was spent on finding a right musical style and female vocalist. After some time it was clear that it is going in the direction of electro gothic music. After some rehearsals with the new female singer it was decided to start looking for another. Maarja Korstnik also helped with the forming of the band and later joined in as a live synth player. The true birth of Suicidal Romance can be put to 2006. Viktoria Seimar joined the band as the female vocalist and in August the first demo CD was released. One month later Suicidal Romance was signed to Infacted Recordings. The very first live appearance for Suicidal Romance took place in September as they were opening for Spetsnaz in Tallinn, Estonia. Shortly after this live performance the band entered the studio to record their debut album. 2007 started with a confirmation from the biggest gothic event in the Netherlands Summer Darkness about Suicidal Romance appearance there. The debut CD “Love Beyond Reach” was released on June 8. This CD contains 11 original tracks and two remixes from Blutengel and Lost Area. The story will continue… But for now I will tell you about their debut album “Love beyond reach”: The cover layout of the album suits not only the band name “Suicidal Romance” but also the album name “Love beyond reach”: three burning candles and a rose with thorns, nothing more! The band themselves remind of Blutengel by their looks.

The intro “Love beyond reach” is very melancholic and almost gloomy, with “not alone” the main magic of this album starts, accompanied by female vocals. It reminds of Blutengel music wise, not in a copied way, more in a genre like way to give you an idea of what “Suicidal Romance” sounds like. In the song “Will it be (for us)” the chorus and bridges are mostly sung by Viktoria, sometimes also accompanied by Dmitry’s vocals, while the verses are sung by Dmitry only, in a dark and evil sounding voice. And this is how the album goes on: male and female vocals alternate, the songs are sometimes melancholic, warm and loving combined with the longing for love and naivety, sometimes harsh and evil mixed with some desperation and hopelessness and make you think of a love you will never reach – which is perfectly fitting to the name of the album, further do the lyrics give you the feeling of a Suicidal Romance, which is great because as a debut album it gives you an idea of what this band is like. Another great aspect I realized listening to it is, that you totally forget about the electronic sound, but the songs animate your imagination and let little stories play in your mind so that you also get the feeling that the album is very short. Afterwards you don’t feel like you have just listened to an album by a band from Estonia but more like you just watched a movie, a dramatic love story with all kinds of ups and downs, a balanced story of life and death… There is so much more I could say about this album and their music, but then I drift off in the imagination it started in my mind and this would sound like a script for a play, so I will stop here. Get the album and let the magic begin in your mind. Get captured by Suicidal Romance yourselves. The Blutengel remix of “Not alone” has more beats on it and makes it sound stronger, but there’s not too much of a difference between the versions. While the “Star” remix is more electronic and differs quite a bit.

This album, this music, this band… It’s art! I definitely will try my best to catch them live some day! Gorgeous! An album that makes your mind drift away, far off, and plays with your imagination, and that as an debut. Let’s see what the future will bring, I am curious.

Links:
Suicide Romance official
Suicide Romance Myspace