This album makes me want to slit my wrists. Which is exactly the point of it. Tearstained, the one-person project of Mikael (he of many other metal projects such as Into the Sunless Meridian, 666, etc.) started out its career with the album Monumental in Its Sorrow, the first album in what he calls the "Suicide Trilogy". That album was a despondent cry of pure sorrow; somber riffing very much in the ancient Mercyful Fate style of song structures combined with some King Diamond-esque falsettos and melodramatic mid-range vocals, always with vocal melodies that soaked every note in a wash of sadness, despair, and frustration.

Well, with There Is No Hope, the second album in said trilogy, he's topped himself. Right from the first line in the first song, "The Death of My Passion", you hear the voice of a completely crushed spirit. The non-falsetto clean vocals are delivered in almost a droning monotone, completely empty of emotion. The falsettos shriek and waver, full of emotion. Mikael also works in a lot of grim black metal croaks, but these, too, just sound empty and dead. Even great vocals would be nothing with a song to sing them over, though, but fortunately Mikael doesn't disappoint in this regard either. There are touches of Under the Sign...-era Bathory (particularly the more epic moments like "Call from the Grave" or "Enter the Eternal Fire") and a primary influence from classic Mercyful Fate/King Diamond - think a cross between Abigail and Don't Break the Oath. How he manages to combine music so frantic, with constantly shifting sections, tempos, and moods, and have it end up sounding so suicidally desperate is a mystery that may never be solved.

It's not doom by any stretch of the imagination (though one song, "Whispers", does flirt with dirge-like tempos), but comes out with a sadness and despondency on par with My Dying Bride or Skepticism. With something this sad, I almost fear hearing the third part of this trilogy. . .

© 2003 lord vic