Asrai Touch in the Dark (The End Records) By: Jeb Branin Anyone who reads my reviews on a regular basis knows that I have very limited patience with dark metal and goth metal. It is far too often pretentious and suffers form incurable melodic wanderlust. And as a result (and this I freely admit) I approach many CDs in this genre with an over-keen sense of caution.
Such was the case with ASRAI.
Much to my surprise and great pleasure the Touch in the Dark album stands heads and shoulders above most other offerings in this vein.
To a large degree that is because it is an album that is NOT really in the same vein as most goth and dark metal. At the heart of this CD is a keen sense of pop and a mastery of "new wave" melody. Yes, it has the requisite "haunting" vibes but for my money this is an album that treads where few bands this side of THE GATHERING have been able to tread.
Anyone who reads my reviews on a regular basis knows that I have very limited patience with dark metal and goth metal. It is far too often pretentious and suffers form incurable melodic wanderlust. And as a result (and this I freely admit) I approach many CDs in this genre with an over-keen sense of caution.
