
Nights into dreams
-- Memoira --
05/11/2020
Stijn Daneels

Album genres:
■ | Symphonic metal |
■ | Gothic Metal |
Album artists:
■ | Jani Puusa | Guitars |
■ | Lassi Nuolivaara | Keyboards, vocals |
■ | Matti Virtanen | Drums |
■ | Niko Laaksonen | Bass |
■ | Annika Jalkanen | Vocals |
■ | Hannu Lindholm | Guitars |
Review
written by Marjolein “Mrs. Metal Shredder” Deduytschaever.
A LITTLE BACKGROUND
Since I
listen to BMS ON AIR on a weekly basis I’ve heard a lot of great bands over the
months. One band that really stood out for me was the Finnish gothic metal band
Memoira. They stood out so much that I decided to get their latest album
shredded.
“Carnival of
Creation” is the third full-length from Memoira and is released and sent to us
by Finnish record label Inverse Records.
THE SONGS THEMSELVES
The opening song “Dawn of Time” starts very calm and mysterious and goes on to be quite an eerie song with a combination of dark and lighthearted moments which include upbeat guitars, moody pianos and relaxed vocals. The song is about living through dreams that are in the past but also in the future. “Carnival of Creation” the title track of the album is a darker and more atmospheric song with faster beats, heavier riffs and more orchestral keyboards. The song gives a feeling of looking back at a past life from out of the dead and kind of looking at life as the laughingstock of creation.
The next
song “Queen Element” is about the creator of nature and the elements. This
creator wants to be praised in heaven because of her creations and in the path
to recognition she becomes greedy and experiences a fall in which she decides
to settle down and live with the scars but also with the happiness when things
go the right way. This makes this song kind of a rollercoaster of emotions and
different riffs. Annika’s vocals give the song a fragile undertone and there
are even some raw grunts from keyboardist Lassi.
“Hunter’s
Moon” is a more epic song that gives off a very symphonic and power metal vibe.
Aside from the many upbeat guitars and keyboards, it also has some grim parts
because of the song’s topic of being cursed. The following song “Dark
Passenger” begins very clean and soft and evolves into a very melodic song with
awesome drum blasts that go perfectly with Annika’s lighthearted voice and fast
pianos in this otherwise dreary song.

“Shooting
Star,” is a track about the passing of time and with that also the passing of
life. It has quite a joyful and lighthearted melody that makes the song very
nice to listen to without feeling somber or getting stuck with the sad memories
of a person you once knew or isn’t there anymore, I would even say it brings
back happy memories of lost loved ones. Well, at least it did for me.
The follow-up
song “Snowglobe” is a nice symphonic song with a doll like joyfulness over it
even though the album as a whole has quite a dark theme. This song’s intimacy and
ballad quality really is a nice breather compared to the rest of the album. The
very last song of the album, “Crimson Bride Symphony” is another slow and
intimate song full of hope and beautiful optimism but once again it has a grim
side to it because of the slightly sad and lonesome feelings the lyrics give to
the song.
MY CONCLUSION
This album
is a dark but still lighthearted album, the darkness lies in the lyrics and the
song’s topics. The lightheartedness lies in the upbeat and sometimes really
happy sounding melodies. Memoira creates a magical and dreamy atmosphere using
nothing more than angelic vocals, energetic guitars, orchestral keyboards and
pounding drums. Highly recommended to all symphonic and gothic metal lovers out
there! Here’s “Shooting Star.”
MY SCORE
85/100