This review gave me a hard time. Big time, I say! No I hadn't heard any previous work of LYRIEL before, so I fell right inside the trap when I read that their music is characterized as "gothic". Even though I am not into music labels, it got me started. But not even close. LYRIEL is a German folk (I repeat folk!!!) metal band with many , many, many, many...oh did I mention many medieval music influences. Let's just say kinda like a Renaissance-struck album with a few metal touches here and there!

"PARANOID CIRCUS" is not LYRIEL'S new work but just a re-release of last year's third album with a new cover and two new songs added; the orchestral version of the self-titled song and the remix of the track "The Regret". Probably the band "played the card" of the re-release since they left the label of "Femme Metal Records" and now they are under a new one , that of AFM's. As I mentioned in the beginning, listening to this album was not an easy job for me. Not because of LYRIEL's lack of talent.

On the contrary , the band is consisted of seven members that can easily be characterized as highly skilled musicians. The crystal clear and sweet vocals by the leading lady, Jessica Thierjung with the addition of the live violin and cello are a "big plus" for them.

Also their talent in songwriting and the strong emotions that are emerging from the tracks are surely worth to mention. Unfortunately ,though, the final outcome is quite dull and mellow (in a bad way) for my taste. Yeah, sure there are the dynamic and powerful pieces like the "The Wolf" and "Elderberry and Lavender" or even the interesting "machine" remix of "The Regret" that catches your attention but they cannot save the day! The medieval sounds seem to prevail over the metal and rock elements in most of the songs (that are mostly ballads), making them hard to notice or even invisible . You can easily get the feeling that you are in a renaissance fair, wearing black pants with lacing and your crusader cloak, and the music you are hearing is coming from the local festival band!

With no means to offend, the thing I am trying to say is that the album is targeted purely to fans of folk metal but all other listeners will not gain any excitement or fascination from the album. Nope, it did not wake the bard in me.