In the Garden by The Shroud.

So most in the know say, “hey, this band is going Trip hop.” And I’d agree somewhat hearing songs that sound like a Curve song or others that romps around like a Garbage song… a boom boom, blink blink, pop pop, drum machine ditty…. As with most others dabbling in Trip hop, its sounds incomplete: -Katatonia, Lacuna Coil, even Garbage - its all bad. Either you embrace it completely or not at all I’d say. Besides my introduction, The Shroud is a diverse and skillful band that plays all sorts of styles of music besides trip hop. Some of it is pop-hop, others remain like the jangly, alternative croonings of their previous album, A Dark Moon Night, almost reaching the peak of mainstream acceptance. Still others change the mood completely and hit the lights. Here they embrace that idealistic manifestation of every suburbanite’s nightmare: G - O - T - H.

With A Dark Moon Night and the debut, Long Ago and Far Away, most fans have considered The Shroud as the promising “Goth” band gone beyond expectations. They’ve seemed to have embraced soaring melody and discarded stereotypical posturing. It was music on the cutting edge with a new sound and the future direction. Let the air out of the balloon now. While the band’s new direction is impressive, these newer sounds highlight something we should rather avoid. The limiting factor is Lydia Fortner's vocals, a cute girl with the monotone alto. She is the manifestation of MTV’s depeche mode du noir - Daria. Lydia seems to have embraced G - O - T - H and all its derivatives to the point of holding it all back to the ho-hum and usual. Lydia drags with her flat delivery and insistence on mimicking the gothic foremothers and forefathers. Well it turns out that she is flatter than the usual way Goth people sing I mean. We should have seen it earlier, she was just as dull in the other albums. It’s too bad because she’s worse than normal. But to hear any sallow G - O - T - H style with melodic alt was too enchanting. We get a full taste of her in the spotlight with In the Garden and… eyyyuggh.

Score 2/5

by Alzn