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Review:
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Fright Night is a gothic rock project by singer, guitarist
and composer Marianna ‘Winter’ Lukyanova and her band. She
is joined on lead vocals by Alexey ‘Ergil’ Ovsiyenko who
has an extraordinary deep voice akin to Brad Roberts of
Crash Test Dummies fame, and his spoken passages are especially
effective and atmospheric. It is a welcome change to have
a male vocalist who actually sings rather than growls, I
wish more gothic band would take note. Marianna also has
a deep dramatic voice, so you get double deepness, an unusual
combination.***
Their music is a unique blend of The Fields of Nephilm,
gothic era Damned, The Mission, Lacrimosa, Skeletal Family,
Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, Camel and Ennio Morricone
spaghetti western. ‘His Death’, ‘The Blood’, ‘We Will Go’,
‘The Cross and the Pyre’, ‘Black’ and my favourite ‘The
Letter of the End’ are all multi faceted songs with a wide
variety of textures and tones, from the melancholic to the
rocking. The mournful ‘The Summon’ features just Winter
and piano, and the ghostly ‘Two Roses’ has Ergil narrating
over a backing of Winter’s flanged guitar arpeggios and
howling winds. ‘Rainbow Demon’ is a cover of the song by
that behemoth of British heavy rock, Uriah Heep, which they
turn into a spaghetti western, I expected a dust covered
Lee Van Cleef to walk through the door! The most remarkable
song is ‘Christopher Lee’, Ergil’s narrated paean to the
master of horror with the equally deep voice, which sounds
like the sort of off kilter lounge jazz that Leonard Cohen
does so well.***
The highly melodic music is full of superb keyboards,
and Winter’s guitar work is most excellent, especially her
solo on ‘The Letter of the End’. A special mention must
also be made of the deep and very poetic lyrics.***
I will sum it up as progressive spaghetti gothic jazz
alt rock, which just about covers all bases. The obvious
customer base is gothic rocks fans, but it will also appeal
to fans of off beat artists like Lou Reed. Available from
CD Baby, and their Myspace is http://www.myspace.com/frightnightband
. Frightfully good stuff, 8.5 out of 10.
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