Track List:
- Orchidfire
- Pain Has Taken Over
- Rain of a Thousand Years
- Grey
- Thy Kingdom Gone
- Words Before You Leave
- Miss Fortune
- Colossal Shaped Despair
- Kismet
- For My Enemies
- Souls of the Neon Reign
- The War We Left Behind
Here's one of the best albums in the whole genre of gothic metal with female vocals, which unfortunately didn't get the recognition it deserves. The band was formed in 1994 under the name Flowing Tears & Withered Flowers, and initially played typical mid-90s death/doom metal in the vein of Tiamat (I still have their cassette "Swansongs" bought long time ago). After shortening their name in 1999, they've released two albums with the sound increasingly being influenced by the 2000s gothic metal, and with Helen Vogt as their new vocalist, they released two more ones which can be considered the classics of that genre.
"Thy Kingdom Gone" is their last and the best album, released in late 2008. I'd describe it as gothic metal that doesn't follow the same formula as most female-fronted metal bands with operatic vocals (Helen's vocals are great but definitely not operatic) and "symphonic" sound (there's a lot of keyboards on this album but it's far from "symphonic"), and still being significantly influenced by 90s doom metal (I have similar feelings about my another female-fronted metal favourite, "Mandylion" by The Gathering, although it isn't particularly similar to anything released by Flowing Tears either). Nearly every track on "Thy Kingdom Gone" is great, but my personal favourites are "Orchidfire", "Rain of the Thousand Years", "Miss Fortune" (a track quite different from the rest), and "Souls of the Neon Reign". It's also worth mentioning that the title track features guest vocals by Vorph fom Samael. Too bad that they haven't released anything more, although Helen has expressed some wishes to record a new album in 2013...
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