“A Sombre Dance” is the second album of the Doomy acoustic Metal band ESTATIC FEAR. It’s been nearly three years since their amazing 1996 debut album “Somnium Obmutum”, which was a four song, 57 minute epic which led the listener into a world of magic and beauty.

Well, now with “A Sombre Dance“, what we get is ten songs and 47 minutes. But just because this album is shorter, does not mean at all that ESTATIC FEAR have lost their touch. Quite on the contrary, actually; this album is one of the best pieces of music you will ever hear and I’m saying this out of complete truth. This is my honest opinion. ESTATIC FEAR have accomplished in one album what many bands may never accomplish in their entire career. “A Sombre Dance“ contains everything you can ever want in a melodic metal album and even a little bit more.

The instruments range from violin, to electric guitar, to acoustic guitar, to flute, drums, keyboards, etc. It may seem like a bit much for some people, but believe me; it’s worth a good listen. All the instrumentals are placed in each song perfectly and the melodies created by the guitars (both electric and acoustic) are completely astounding and will leave you wanting more long after the album has finished spinning in your CD player.

The best song I would have to recommend from this album is entitled “Chapter IV”. This one song alone incorporates every instrument this band has ever used in all their songs and they play it out perfectly for an entire ten minutes. The lyrics and vocals are both beautiful, with soaring female singing and powerful growling from frontman Markus Miesbauer.

So I beg of you, please (!) take a trip to your local used CD store and pick this gem up. And if you can’t find it there, buy it off eBay for 5 bucks! This CD is extremely rare and it’s unlikely that anything like this will ever come out again. It’s sad to know that ESTATIC FEAR have not been heard of or seen since 1999, so it’s not officially stated if they’ve been disbanded; but I wouldn’t hold my breath to wait for a new album from them anytime soon. This CD has been constantly rotating in my CD player ever since I got it two summers ago. Find it and hold on to it! (Online February 26, 2006)