From their Facebook page, "CRESTFALLEN QUEEN hail from Stuttgart Germany but could have very well been born anywhere in the dark hazy fog of the seventies. The Doom laden riffs are backed by galloping metallic rhythms and hounded by eerie synths which are then topped off by a majestic voice that lurks somewhere between this world and the next. "Queen of Swords" is their debut album, and contains six tracks.

"Umbra" leads us off, a short two-minutes of noise. It has a dark and ominous feeling to it, but very little structure. "Queen of Swords" is an eight minute beast, opening with slow and doleful clean guitars. The main riff hits and it's an odd sound....eclectic. The vocals do indeed exist somewhere between this world and the next, especially when considering the harsh elements. The music...is hard to describe...some Power Metal elements contrast with Doomy elements, reminding me of a depressed THE DEAR HUNTER. They seemed to have carved their own niche in the genre of Metal for sure...we'll get to that later though. The guitar solo sequence at the end dives into trippy territory.

"Euyrdice's Lullaby" is a bit longer. It opens with clean guitars but with this buzz of a siren in the background. It's more of a melancholy sound, fueled by poignant vocals. The riff picks up for some time and then it's back to that despondent, mellow sound. The harsh vocals at the end really dial up the Metal components here. "Invocation" is another short track of just noise. White noise. At this point I am asking myself...why? But we'll get to that as well. "Ghost Warriors" is the longest song on the album, at over nine minutes. Trippy elements come at you from the start, along with what sounds like a wolf howling in the background. There is some sort of odd disconnect between the vocals and the instruments...like a plaid shirt with polka dot pants. Harsh vocals come in towards the end, and then the song does a 180, with a jovial little guitar riff that takes the track to completion.

"Lethean Bed" closes the album. It opens with a slow and Doomy sound, again with a disconnect in the vocals to the instruments. I have to wonder, is this purposeful? I'm not suggesting the singer is tone deaf because to be a signed band in the industry today is not of happenstance. So assuming it's on purpose, why? It's annoying for me. The harsh vocals are better at pairing with the sound to me than the cleans, but hey that's just my opinion.

Getting back to my earlier two point...the first being that this is a very unique album, unlike anything else I have heard before. So, who would it appeal to then? I think broadly to fans of Heavy Metal in general who want to hear something different, something singularly unique. At its core, it's Doom Metal, but there are plenty of other elements here to keep the listener engaged. My second point is the clean vocals. They are sung deliberately to cut against the key of the music, and it makes it hard to enjoy for me. The harsh vocals however are excellent. Overall, this was a fairly unique listening experience which I appreciated.