Tales of Wanderings 2011

"Old Silver Key is very much a Drudkh side project which also features Stéphane "Neige" Paut on vocals, and this is the first release from that project.

"Tales of Wanderings" has a base sound similar to Drudkh's "Handful of Stars" but with most black metal elements stripped away and replaced with alternative rock, dark metal, gothic metal and post-rock/metal elements. There are a couple of vaguely black metallish passages every now and then, but you should not expect this to be a black metal release. Actually, Old Silver Key strikes me more as being a melancholic post-metal act which draws just as much - if not more - on alternative rock as on metal. There are enough metal elements on the release, though, that I think that many metalheads - especially those who like the more melancholic end of the gothic metal gamut.

The overall sound is quite warm - in part because of Neige's soft and almost vulnerable vocals and in part because of the sound production and the nature of the music itself. Despite the warmness, "Tales of Wanderings" is an incredibly melancholic and wonderfully expressive release which even has some progressive inklings every now and then.

Fans of melancholic rock, dark metal, gothic metal and post-rock/metal should give this album a listen - it is undeniably a very good record.

(review originally posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"