Liv Kristine - "River of Diamonds"
It's pretty, but not great for swimming in
Liv Kristine has been in a few different projects during her career, but has always leaned into the Beauty and the Beast in every project I’ve heard her in - though, in Theatre of Tragedy, the “Beast” was more the suit-and-tie type (with 80s-style sunglasses and hair). She’s talented, of course, but just can’t quite measure up against the heavyweights of the female-metal-vocalist world (Jansen, van Giersbergen, Simons, den Adel, and Olzon, among a few others). She’s a firm B-lister, and this album really just reinforces that.
But this album is, by no means, “bad”, though there are some definite “meh” moments. Album opener “Our Immortal Day” is good, but it has moments where she wavers, teeters on her pitch. “Pictured Within” is meant to be sweet and sentimental, but it’s honestly just kinda boring and bland. And “Shaolin Me” just doesn’t sit right with me. I do not know enough about where the canned Asian melody that she mimics in the chorus comes from (listen to it - you’ll hear it) to judge it appropriately, but it doesn’t really have a place on this album.
But then there are also some really fantastic highs. “Maligna” is a great track with a solid melody that uses its layered vocals effectively, and has about the most attitude I’ve ever heard from Kristine. And…yeah, okay, that’s really the highest high on the album.
Throughout, Kristine rarely, if ever, presents her vocals in any sort of raw format. Almost all of her vocal lines are modified in post or have duplicate vocal lines shadowing them. It creates this sort of haunting depth in the vocals, and you can tell that she has taken a lot of inspiration for 80s synth in her personal approach. It also highlights how bare-bones the accompaniment is at times.
The album ends with a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors”. I swear she cut the BPM in half. And you know it’s not a great cover when it just makes you want to listen to the original. Just too slow.
Rating: Yellow