Leaves' Eyes – Njord

Releasedate: 20-08-2009; Label: Napalm Records
By: Lara Cappelli

Leaves’ Eyes is a Metal band with classical influences founded in 2003 by Atrocity’s members and soon after joined by the ex Theatre of Tragedy singer, Liv Kristine.

It’s kind of difficult to describe “Njord”. Mainly because it has good sides as well as bad ones. It is a well written album, but just if you consider the ensemble turning a blind eye to many facets.
The first two or three songs are really good, there is a nice atmosphere in those, especially in the title track “Njord”. The fallout starts with the fifth song, “Scarborough Fair” which is a traditional English ballad cover. Leaves’ Eyes started it perfectly, really quietly but then it all fades in that symphonic metal mark that simply has nothing to do with the song. After that the whole album sounds as a huge repetition of the same ideas and sounds, for the exception of “Irish Rain” which is a calm and nice ballad.
Liv Kristine has an amazing voice, this must be said, way better than many other Metal singers and right for this reason this band shouldn’t need grunts/screams that sometimes appear without a real relevance. In the end, this album is a good one, as a symphonic metal fan I liked it but still I think Njord is simply nothing special, it doesn’t differ too much from others of this kind. Even the cover art is the typical one of this genre: the good looking singer on the front and the rest of the band on the back. Creativity would be welcome sometimes.

Links:
Leaves’ Eyes MySpace
Leaves’ Eyes Official