After numerous line-up troubles the debut album of Via Mystica sees the light of day. Via Mystica is a polish doom/gothic band which, according to their promo sheet, is very popular in their homeland. I’m not sure if this is justified.

Yes, their music is pretty good; it perfectly displays the tragic and depressive moods they obviously want to create with their music. The balance between aggressive and more dramatic songs is more or less perfectly found. Only their drummer is a small point of irritation, he is not all that tight; for most people nothing to worry about, but for me, as a drummer, it’s just a little side note. The sound and production are really good, heavy and dark guitars, floating keyboards and a pretty singer, nothing to complain.

But, (and this is a but with a capital B people!!) it all sounds so familiar, I just couldn’t place it. So on I went through my huge collection of CDs, and there I found it: Theatre Of Tragedy’s Velvet Darkness They Fear. The resemblance is really striking, to me at least. It’s so much alike that I almost began to question my sanity.

The music is good, the performance is also pretty good but it’s just a pity that it’s almost a copy of the blueprint for Velvet Darkness They Fear. So for the people who think Theatre Of Tragedy sucks these days, they have a new alternative. I like it as well, but I would have much more liked it when Via Mystica released something that sounds more like themselves, instead of Theatre Of Tragedy copy.