Libitina- Parhelion

Artist: Libitina

CD Title:Parhelion

Label: Libitation Records

Reviewer: Richard Edge

Date: 8-01-06

There’s something of an intelligence to most musical goths, meaning that they, perhaps more so than musicians from any other genre, love to program ‘things’ From the heady days when any self respecting goth band had a drum machine with a name to the modern age of home recording, messing with buttons and knobs has been a goth muso preoccupation. Libitina follow this trend admirably. Suitably anthemic, programmed drum tracks adorn their tracks, together with weaving, supporting synth lines. The majority of the album is straight ahead guitar led goth rock, albeit with some notable exceptions, such as the synth driven delicacies of “Landfill” and the moody strains of the Germanic “Geist” Vocals at times bring to mind Rosetta Stone’s Porl King, which is no bad thing, and at others Manuskript’s Tim Chandler, also a favourable comparison. Indeed Libitina do at times sound like the darker end of the Manuskript spectrum, albeit without the massive hooks. It has to be said that this is perhaps not an instant classic on first listen, but give it a chance and it actually starts to draw you in. They really need to work on building the choruses for me, since at present they’re not all they could be. Other than that, a welcome musical addition to Brit-Goth.