Search - Various Artists :: Fairies Elves & Angels 1

Raise your flagon of ale and toast the women

Scott Sweet | Colorado Springs, CO | 01/05/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Did you see the price for this? Dude! Between these two CDs, there's some great music ranging from ethereal to Celtic to Middle Eastern to orchestra rock. Women are at the helm on all the songs. Some songs are more "goth" than others, but none of these ladies sound like Andrew Eldritch. That's probably a good thing.Just like every compilation, there are clunkers among the gems. Still, there are enough really good songs to merit buying the whole thing. Disc 1, track 1 (Claire Voyant - "Majesty") and the last song on disc 2 (The Gathering - "Leaves (live)") are my two favorites. Start with a winner and end with a winner. Sarband's "Alyawm" is just plain hypnotic. "Majesty" is a beautiful, drifting techno-ballad. The Metropole Orchestra turns "Leaves" into the ultimate James Bond theme/gothic torch song.Right now there's a big surge in compilations for gothic/darkwave/ethereal. It's cheaper for ten bands to throw in one song than for any one of them to record an album of their own. "Fairies, Elves & Angels vol. I" is likely as good as any of them. Now, of course, there's a volume II."

Beautiful compilation!

mm | USA | 08/03/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a diverse compilation of music ranging from ethereal to more gothic influenced melodic rock. The sound is electronically textured in many of these songs to beautiful effect, and the vocalists are almost all female. The various artists combined onto this set make for an excellent varied musical experience. My favorite song is 'Majesty' because of the beautiful vocals, but actually I haven't matched many of the other songs to their artists because this cd set is such an excellent compilation - I always listen to it start to finish, one disk after the other, without any breaks or pauses. Put it on whenever you want to relax or dream, and let the music carry you to old worlds."