Of her mental soundtrack

Well my waltzing dancers, in the absence of any crafting adventures to recount (though there will be soon, I hope), and because I don't know if you'd be interested in the mild drama of realizing one has to choose between a lolita tea party meetup and a cosplay picnic (for this blogger, that's a very hard choice, you know!), I've decided to tread the path of other bloggers and recommend to you a few bands that might appeal to my fellow gothic and lolita types.

I suspect most of us lolis are somewhat familiar with the gorgeously frilly side of Japan's music scene, and might recognize the names Kanon Wakeshima, the band Kalefina, and (my all time favorite) Versailles. But outside of Visual Kei and Jrock, I'm a diehard metalhead--symphonic, gothic and doom metal, to be precise.

Recently I've been looking for new metal bands, and also I've explored some new (to me) genres, so let me show you what I've found so far. Since I'm not too familiar with these styles of music, I'm a bit scared to ascribe genres (I'm afraid someone will bite me, upcoming mention of vampires notwithstanding). However, I'll let you know when something is metal--usually in the symphonic or melodic styles. Unfortunately, I'm not sure of the protocol of imbedding youtube videos in a post, so I'll leave you with clicky links.

~Sirenia
A female-voiced metal band from Norway. I've fallen in love with their dreamy, wistful sound, exemplified in songs like Winterborn 77 and Sister Nightfall. To me this group has a rather atmospheric quality, but retains the energy and brilliance of sound that makes it metal.

~Svenia
An Italian band. I discovered them during National Novel Writing Month, and they immediately went on my novel playlist. They have a very melodic sound combined with the "ponderous romantic gloom" (my inner poet has an odd way of describing things) that's one of the qualities I've been looking for in my music-listening ventures. Two of my very favorite songs of Svenia's are Death is Waiting for Your Heart and My Nuptial Sepulchre (the other thing I love about Svenia: their song titles!).

~Alucard
A group from Belgium. I've only heard a few songs by this band so far, but I already love them. I can't think how to describe their sound, but it reminds me a little of Lareine, former band of Versailles' vocalist--probably because Alucard's vocalist has a similar tenor quality to his voice. (Is it strange that the singer of this group even looks a little like Kamijo, to me?) I'll start you off with the music video for Cold.

~Amberian Dawn
Another gorgeous metal band, this time from Finland. If you love pure, soaring female vocals, I strongly recommend them. So far the songs I know are He Sleeps in a Grove and River of Tuoni.

And last but not least, I imagine some of you darklings might have heard of this next group, but they deserve to be mentioned anyway.

~The 69 Eyes
Also known as the Helsinki Vampires (see, I told you there would be mention of vampires--and that's not even counting Kamijo). Remember the "ponderous romantic gloom" of Svenia? This band has it in spades, along with a dash of sarcastic spunk. I have several favorite songs, but I'll confine myself to mentioning Brandon Lee and Devils. If you're not sure you like deep-voiced vocals, Jyrki will convince you otherwise.

That's all for now, my Ballroom guests. In writing this, I thought of several more artists I would like to recommend, so maybe I'll do posts like this in the future. But now, go forth and listen to music! (And no biting.)