THE UNIVERSE EXPANDS

This Greek outfit is a side project of Dol Ammad, an outfit combining operatic vocals, electronic music and metal; with the metal side of the mixture dominating. Dol Theeta is much of the same; but in this case the electronic elements of the music dominates while the metal aspects have more of an subordinate role in the proceedings.

And the seven tracks of the album serves up some pretty intriguing creations; where massive electronic textures are woven, embellished with metal riffs and spacey textures in grandiose and majestic compositions - and the operatic vocals adds just the needed amount of power and contrast to the slightly cold instrumental cascades.

The rest of this production contains songs with more sparse instrumentation; and less focus on richly textured segments and themes. And although nice enough, the tracks get too repetitive without the additional musical embellishments found in the first half of the album - and unless you're a big fan of operatic female vocals these 5 tunes will probably be less interesting.

A mixed affair overall - but worth checking out for the first 7 songs.

The first proper studio album from this Greek symph/neo classic/goth metal band.

The Dol Ammad/Theeta bands is based in the goth metal tradition. Take one piece of operatic like female vocal and put that over some medium harsh goth house rhythms. Add some progressive metal electric guitar solos and male vocals to this mix too and you get this band. A very effective combo which will give you access to the Nightwish/any metal band with a female vocalist market. A very lucrative market.

The music here is pretty good too. The goth house is not as hellish extreme as on the Godess EP. The emphasis is creating mood on this album. A good development, I have to say. But there is still enough goth house here to entertain the fans of this music. The female vocals are great though.

The music is good enough for me. I am not overawed by the lack of a killer track or five. But this album is still well worth investigating.

3 stars

This electronic new age band with a gothic metal twist can surely be quite fun, but the moment when you listen to it should be chosen carefully. My girlfriend suggested a bath for two, and lots of rosemary bath gel. I'm sure you won't regret if you try too. Dol Theeta creates this dreamy, enchanted, weightless and at the same time tough environment, where various new things become possible.

Dol Theeta is a project of the Greek space metal hero Thanasis Lightbridge. He acted before as a creator of another, more metal and more gothic space project: Dol Ammad. By the way, both Dols: Ammad and Theeta, linguistically don't mean anything. Phonetically, they sound quite interesting, so no problem with that. Dol Ammad is (was?) a more heavy equipped affair, a full scale electronic gothic metal space ship, with a 14-headed operatic department, may be even suited for a devoted head-banging during the flight. Dol Theeta is evidently a lighter shuttle, stripped to just one opera singer Kortessa, the Ammad co-pilot and guitarist Dim and of course, the captain Thanassis, behind the keyboards and drums.

It's an ideal elevator music for a metalhead. But if you listen to it too closely, you could find some compositions too long and may be not varied enough. So, choose the moment for listening it with care.