GARDEN OF THE ARCANE DELIGHTS

This EP was released shortly after the debut album and is in fact included in later released versions of the debut album being combined with it. In my opinion, putting the two albums together takes away from the impact of the first album and the last track on the debut album ends up becoming not as significant. But this review is for the EP on it's own. To me, it doesn't sound quite as cohesive as the debut album, but then it is a EP afterall. The production is definitely improved over the debut, but still not as good as what we would get on future albums. Instruments start to stand out a little more now and the vocals are a lot clearer. The individual songs have more personality than on the debut album and they don't have the "wall of sound" feeling that I felt on the previous release. However, nothing really stands out here again. Even though you hear a slight progression towards what was to become their trademark sound, this EP still has the goth-rock sound. Even if the individual songs are more interesting, as a whole I don't consider this work as important to their overall discography as the debut album. The last track, "Flowers of the Sea", with a little better production, could have easily fit on the next album however, and because of that, this EP serves as a great link to the progression of the band's music.