[METAL
SHREDDER REPORTING]
I first met
Fabulae Dramatis when scouting around for bands for Shredder Sunday VI. They
instantly accepted my offer to include the song Agni’ Destiny (Fire I) on that
episode and shortly thereafter I received their freshly released album Solar
Time’s Fables from Hardlife Promotion. Enough introductory talk, let’s go!
[THE
SHREDDING BASICS]
Solar
Time’s Fables is the second album from the Antwerp based avant-garde metal band
Fabulae Dramatis and is an independent release. Although the album has a heavy metal
feel at its very core, the band employs a wide arrange of influences from
various metal and non-metal related genres. Songs like the album’s opener
Agni’s Dynasty (Fire I), Sati (Fire II) and Barren (Gravel) are the most metal
oriented tracks on the release, with the latter two wrapping up with an epic
guitar solo. Metal subgenres like death metal, black metal, symphonic metal and
progressive metal are all featured on the album. On the other hand, songs like
the relaxing jazz song Sirius Wind, the Arabian instrumental Forest and the
tango dance track El Roble Para El Corazón (Wood) show a very different, more
exotic side of Fabulae Dramatis. In addition, the band incorporates various vocal
styles ,both male and female. Clean heavy metal vocals, operatic symphonic
metal singing, death metal growls and black metal shrieks. And if that wasn’t
enough variety already, the band also employs a ton of additional instruments
to their core metal sound such as violin, harp, custom percussion, accordion
and more! As you can see, there’s a lot to be heard and enjoyed in Solar Time’s
Fables, however, one thing that remains consistent through the album is the
hypnotic feel that the music provokes. A feel that will keep you engaged all
the way through its 50 minute runtime!
[THE SHREDDING
THEMES AND VISION]
Many songs
on Solar Time’s Fables deal with humanity and its influences over nature and
each other in both good and bad ways and using plenty of metaphors referring to
nature, mythology and fantasy. Fabulae Dramatis clearly is a thinking man’s band
in both music and themes. On the album’s front cover is the band’s leading lady
Isabel in her signature outfit, with a determined look in her eyes and with two
snakes crawling up to her shoulders. She actually looks a bit like Medusa!
Maybe it’s a good thing she doesn’t look straight at the camera, she might have
turned any potential buyers to stone!
[THE
SHARPEST SHREDS AND THE BLUNTEST BLADES]
One of my
favorites on the album is the third track, Heresy (Steel). It’s actually two
tracks in one, with one part featuring bassist Hamlet barking his way though
his lines alongside aggressive beats and another part having vocalist Isabel
going fully operatic and providing the song with some breathing room. Both
styles and singers take turns at hitting your eardrums and it’s awesome! Another
favorite of mine is the tango-inspired track Roble Para El Corazón. It starts
off with a seductive accordion melody and lyrics in Spanish before the song’s
main melody is being played on both the accordion as well as an electric
guitar. It creates a unique dynamic! Songs like that make me wish that I could tango
dance myself! Overall, I can’t really think of a track that I would consider to
be objectively inferior to the other songs on Solar Time’s Fables. This is just
such a multi flavored album that’s so diverse yet still remains impressively
engaging. Time to score this little gem!
[THE
SHREDDER’S SCORECARD]
8 Medusa
gazes out of 10! A huge and ambitious project that I can warmly recommend to
both metalheads and non-metalheads alike! Given the fact that this is only
Fabulae Dramatis’s second release, I’m very curious to see what they’ll bring
to the table in the next few years! But
for now, enjoy the live video of the album’s fourth track, Sati (Fire II).
