This was one of the best newcomers of the year 1998. After the well received debut album they delivered a very impressive show at the Dynamo Open Air and after being the support act of Dio we didn’t hear a lot of Black Symphony in Europe. Now with “Tears Of Blood” the follow up album is there and it reaches the same high level as the debut. The style still is a gathering of variability and so we can hear influences of melodic hardrock, seventies rock, industrial, doom, progressive and gothic. Most tracks are more focused on very strong riffs then on the debut and with newcomer Ric Plamondon on vocals they do have a very strong trump in their hands. His voice is very powerful, a bit husky and his melodic earcatching vocal lines come straight from his heart and fit very good to the dark and sinister style of the band. Mattias Burstrom fills up this atmosphere very well with his dark and heavy keyboards. Also the new drummer Pete Holmes (former Black ‘n’ Blue and Ted Nugent) gives a bit of doom feeling towards the band, but also has a strong progressive feeling.

Remarkable is the role of bass player Rev Jones with some very strong accents and bass lines. Then of course there is band leader, guitar player and songwriter Rick Plester who delivers -besides some very strong riffs- some great solo’s which fit perfectly towards the song and are never really too much. Some have a seventies, blues rock feeling and give Black Symphony a great own sound. The twelve songs are very strong and so the album contains no weak ones. The great character of them is that they have some great structure with a lot of tension and have a real head and tail. To me the highlights are “Death” with a lot of variation, the strong power ballad “Burned”, the energetic “Over And Over” and the symphonic epos “The Black Symphony (Part II)” with classic arrangements and a beautiful solo. With such a strong return I can’t wait to see this band live and hopefully they will be in the picture for the next three years.