The first thing that someone is noticing when a new album falls into his hands is the cover. Inevitably, I did the same when "Tales From The Grave" came to our headquarters and our publishing manager gave it to me. To tell you the truth, the title and the artwork couldn't be more cliché. Even the fonts are the typical ones that you can find in a melodic Death/Black Metal release. And, yes! This is an album like that! Not always bad, but let's see what these guys have to say.

MISTWEAVER, from Spain, are not new. Founded back in 1997, they have already released three full length albums. Despite the difficulties they had in the past (changing members, their record company closed etc) they are still active and with a new album in stores. Not that the recordings of "Tales From The Grave" were easy. Without a drummer, they recorded the drum parts with a session drummer in 2007 and then they started recording the rest of it in May 2008! Not the ideal way to record an album. But they did it; meanwhile, they found a new record company and a new drummer, Simón, and they are ready to continue their trip.

But is "Tales From The Grave" capable of making the band more known or is it another mediocre CD? Well, to tell you the truth, I can't say that I loved this album. It has some nice compositions, like "A New Vision Of The Apocalypse", some nice melodic slow tempo breaks with keyboards, but overall it sounds "one of the same". You can distinct their influences from some classic Metal bands, like IRON MAIDEN, in some of the solos with the twin guitars, some parts remind of the pioneers of this sound, MOONSPELL, and their sound in general can be compared to DARK TRANQUILLITY, too. The music is not bad in general, but it doesn't have that something that will make the band take off. And if they have to do something to make their music more interesting and not just putting solos in a track, that sometimes sound like they don't fit, the vocals can surely be better. The growls from Raul didn't convince me. This is an area that they definitely have to work. The production from Andy LaRocque gives MISTWEAVER something extra, but channels are not capable by themselves to make an album something more than average.

I'd like at the end to say a few things: First of all I'd like to give extra kudos to the band, because they didn't call it quits after the difficulties they had. This thing shows that they believe in themselves and MISTWEAVER. On the other hand, they have to work hard in order to make that step that will make them stand out from the rest of the bands. "A New Vision Of The Apocalypse" is not bad, but with all those releases they have to do it even better.