Mandragora Scream is a project formed in 1997 by Morgan Lacroix, vocalist, musician and author of the lyrics.

They just released their first album, 'Fairy Tales From Hell's Caves', which is a gothic rock one. Though this happens to be one of my fave kinds of music, I am always sceptical towards a new release, since originality is something many bands lack lately.

Mandragora Scream have a new freshness and I have to admit they I found myself waking up with this album lots of times! It is a haunting album, perhaps a perfect soundtack if you read Dante's Inferno.

Morgan's vocals are not something outstanding, she gets the job well done though. The music gives this out of this world feeling. Random strokes of piano notes are swiftly replaced by dark melodies from the keyboard. The guitars take over to liven up the feeling. It balances from just a siren singing a sad story, to old fashion gothic rock, to a ballad with some vocal distortions...

The first five tracks, especially 'The Time Of Spells', show that this band from Italy has great potentials. The rest are just average to plain good. The whole album manages to give a haunting, melancholic feeling.

It lacks that certain something to be really special, but it is a very good first release.