Album Review: Child Of Caesar - Love in Black

The debut album «Love in Black» by «Child of Caesar» takes its low-tuned guitars and dark melodies back to the days when Gothic Rock was at its peak. It's hard to believe that this band mostly comes from Germany. The style is goth rock/metal with elements from the dark metal genre. Influences from bands like «Sister of Mercy», «Tiamat», «Paradise Lost», but also German goth metal icons like «Darkseed» or «Scream Silence» cannot be denied. On "Love in Black" Daniel Mitchell takes over the vovals and is more in the alternative than in the really dark sector, but fits. Anyone who listened to Gothic Metal/Rock in the late 90s early 00s will enjoy this disc.

Caesar's children go by the names André Marcussen (rhythm guitar), Christopher F. Kassad (bass & lead guitar) and Dino Cadavian (drums), while Daniel Mitchell of the US metal band "Autumn Eyes" is responsible for singing, not a bad one Grip, which is successful here, because it fits the style of music vocally - and still takes some getting used to. The band's gothic rock comes across with an extremely dark passion and similar to their role models, the songwriting is dark and somber. On the one hand there are the lyrics, which deal with dark themes – a great fascination for everything morbid, death or emptiness cannot be denied. On the other hand, we have the implementation of these texts and moods in the music. In the end this means a lot of scary-beautiful melodies, partly very slow and carrying, then again very emphatically emphasized with bass and riffs. The sad howling lead guitar sets accents. Keyboard and programming are not neglected either and are eerie mood makers as required. The harmonious backing vocals and choir inserts often round off the songs nicely.

Child of Caesar - Love in Black

The sound effects that sound when listening to the opener Defector could also be the trumpets of the apocalypse. Actually, the first bars are just a nice, dark keyboard game that should prepare you for a wall full of powerful Gothic Rock. In harmony with organ sounds and the dark, spherical keyboards, the band plays exciting and uncompromising Gothic Metal. Even the voice of frontman Daniel Mitchell makes you shudder and with the dark, angry guitars, the stormy drums, the mystical keyboards and the powerful bass, the gothic show is perfect. «Defector» have built «Child Of Caesar» with great attention to detail and yet a simple structure. Anyone who now thinks that the gothic rockers are one of those endlessly copied cliché goths is wrong. In a black scene, in which the same porridge is repeatedly cooked and reheated a thousand times over, a fresh breeze finally blows up on a cloudy autumn day and shows that there is another way!

The introduction to "Red Sun" is melancholy and harmonious. Acoustic at first, the song quickly transforms with mid-tempo drums and ramps up. The simple, spherical keyboards give that certain something, which makes the whole thing even more magical and depressing. Ax Man Christopher also plays a brilliant guitar solo here. The chorus is fabulously realized and burns into your memory. In any case, the mid-tempo track is a powerful, ingenious Gothic Metal thunderstorm that unfolds its energy in a loud thunder and definitely pays off. The gates of ingenious Gothic Metal open «Child Of Caesar» with the title «Gates». As before, this is mid-tempo song fare with somber keyboards, guitars and basses that couldn't be more punchy. This proves that less can be more, because the e-piano definitely gives the refrain the finishing touches. Towards the end there is also the obligatory guitar solo again in this glorious gothic metal anthem, this time accompanied by pianos. One thing is for sure, «Child Of Caesar» know how to write melodic, anthemic refrains that often have catchy tunes.

Child of Caesar-Red Sun

«Nero» is very melodic in his lead guitar. The rhythm guitars and bass runs, but kept relatively simple. Definitely worth listening to, but it will probably be the song, because you tend to skip it. The guitar solos with piano sounds don't really help either. The keyboard playing makes your hair stand on end in the first few seconds of «Long Live The Night». It sounds like pure horror and the melody is simply eerily beautiful. This melody also forms the leading element in the chorus. Bass and guitar(s) are again strongly directed in the direction of banging. «Lost Sacrifice» initially makes the listener think of a war movie, march drums, sounds like an old radio… you know what I mean, before the sound is there in full stereo and with full force. The drum sounds remain the same at first, until it continues again with concentrated, energetic Gothic Rock. Lyrically, this is about the hypocrisy of Christianity, or the church itself. A strong song, which again proves its strength in the refrain. The music of «Child Of Caesar» is definitely not designed for speed, even if the double bass is used here and there: the songs are almost entirely in mid-tempo. But speed is something «Child Of Caesar» doesn't need either. The band plays imaginative goth and their singer captivates the listener with his voice.

On «You» there are melodic lead guitars that couldn't be more melancholic. The entire band mixes the best together again to create a song that can be rocked. String sounds return on «At Heart», softly nestling with the piano playing. Here, symphonic, magical loveliness meets brutal heaviness and of course again as it should be: beautifully dark! Here, too, everything is correct. The rocking 3-chord guitar riffs could be a bit more varied here. However, this is countered immediately when the beat changes and once again the best guitar solo is allowed to sound. As always, towards the back of the song, but after this brief quick excursion, it veers back down to the more moderate, darker paths before fading away. The title track «Love In Black» is next and this is where the full power of «Child Of Caesar» comes out of the speakers and into the listener's ears. The focus on this song is more on the anthemic singing and the musicians play their instruments single-mindedly in their purity and so «Love In Black» scores fully. "Worlds Without Skies" is the last track on the album and impresses with its beautiful piano melodies, which form a powerful element at the beginning and in the middle. The light keyboards together with the guitars and powerful basses and the singer result in a total work of art.

Of course, Child Of Caesar don't reinvent the wheel, but they just do a really good job on their debut album and rock very earthy and dirty at times. Most of the songs are really catchy and don't get boring even after repeated listening. There are also two or three less good songs, but that's usually the case. In any case, I'm surprised by «Love in Black», which sets a big exclamation mark in times when comparatively few good albums in the Gothic Metal area are released. Certainly sometimes the riffs and the arrangement are relatively simple and the melodic part of "Child Of Caesar" is often in the vocals, as well as in the keyboards and now and then in the lead guitar and yet the band offers all around dark-slow-scary- beautiful goth metal from Germany. Fans of the Sisters or Tiammat should definitely listen to this, because here you can clearly hear the style of the 90s and find something that you probably haven't heard in this way for a long time. More like that, at least I felt like listening to older records again...

Tracklist:

1. deflector
2. Red Sun
3. Gates
4. Black
5. Long Live the Night
6. Lost Sacrifice
7. you
8. At heart
9. Love in black
10. Without skies

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