Dol Ammad is the child of composer/keyboard player Thanasis Lightbridge who formed the band in the year 2000. The reason for this formation was that he needed a vehicle for his compositions, which are a mix of synthesizer music, classical music and metal. Quite an ambitious undertaking if you ask me.

Two demos were produced and those were enough to convince Black Lotus Records to sign them. The first product from this relationship is the debut album Star Tales, which is spinning its rounds for some time now in my cd player.

Upon first listening I thought that either Black Lotus or I must have gone mad. The music on Star Tales defies any description, as it is a genre on its own. Luckily Dol Ammad themselves provide us with a genre indication; they like to call their music Electronic Art Metal.
If we dissect the description into the individual pieces we find out that the Electronic part regards the heavy use of synthesizers. Where in metal music the focus is on the guitars, the synthesizers on Star Tales claim the role of lead and rhythm guitar in most songs. The Art part is easily explained by the intentions of Dol Ammad. They don’t make music for the masses but for the music. Metal is the last piece of the description and although the synthesizers and 12-headed choir seem to indicate otherwise Star Tales is in essence still a metal album.

Rhapsody drummer Alex Holswarth provided the drum tracks and he is of course a very skilled power metal drummer. His energetic and sometimes intense drumming (blast beats) are the driving force behind Dol Ammad. The absolute highlight of Dol Ammad is the Europe choir: twelve classically trained singers who provide the vocal parts on Star Tales. Sounds like Therion you say? Not quite, the Europe choir is the lead vocalist and not a background choir and has a much larger part in the music.

With so many elements in the music, there’s a lot going on in each song and sometimes it’s hard to keep track of the direction of the song, but after a few times listening with the headphones on, all falls into place and everything sounds more or less logical. The recording must have been hell but the sound is overwhelming, a virtual tidal wave of sound is coming out of the speakers and all this (excluding the drums, which were recorded elsewhere) was accomplished in Thanasis’ home studio!

If you’re still not certain if Dol Ammad is something for you then it would be a good idea to check out their website for some mp3’s but what you should really do, is just buy the album and be surprised, really surprised by this totally unique and groundbreaking album.