{"id":6494,"date":"2012-09-04T00:00:23","date_gmt":"2012-09-04T00:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=6494"},"modified":"2013-06-01T14:28:42","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T14:28:42","slug":"album-review-liv-kristine-libertine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-liv-kristine-libertine\/","title":{"rendered":"LIV KRISTINE – Libertine (2012) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

LIV KRISTINE
Libertine<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nNapalm (2012)<\/span>
Rating: 6.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Liv Kristine goes way back with many metal fans. In the 90s she ushered in the gothic rock movement, and later introduced electronic elements to the songs, while fronting Norway\u2019s Theatre of Tragedy. In the new millennium she has continued to rule the goth rock and folk metal world markets as the frontwoman for her own band, Leaves\u2019 Eyes.<\/p>\n

Simultaneously however, she has explored her more pop-oriented side with solo albums under her own name. Libertine<\/em> is her fourth solo album and another solid step towards the sound she\u2019s going for. <\/p>\n

Kristine\u2019s last album, Skintight<\/em> (2010), had some extremely wonderful moments, and Libertine further explores and exploits the best moments from it. The dark and driving \u2018Solve Me\u2019 as well as the duet \u2018Vanilla Skin Delight\u2019 are guitar based rockers that stop just short of being radio-friendly, but I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s an intentional move. The title track is a blend of bass-driven pop and the goth rock sound of Leaves\u2019 Eyes, while the mellower \u2018Meet Me In The Red Sky\u2019 likely should have been left for the next Leaves\u2019 Eyes album.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Man With The Child In His Eyes\u2019 is the lone surprise of the album. Covering a Kate Bush song is no easy task, but Kristine does it with an introspective, almost Elton John-like, persistence. While I\u2019m not overtly familiar with Bush\u2019s work (I was surprised to learn this was a cover), it\u2019s not hard to hear Kristine\u2019s unique stamp on it. While Kristine doesn\u2019t necessarily sound like John, the combination of the lone piano and vocal and the way she phrases the lyrics reminds me a great deal of John\u2019s deeper cuts from the 70s.<\/p>\n

The poppy new wave bounce of \u2018Paris Paris\u2019 is the highlight here by far. It\u2019s big and bright and sexy with just enough grit to remind you of bands like Stimulator, Blondie and The Cars. This is the only time on the album that the mixing is exactly right and when all the pieces meld into one like they do here; well you have some really excellent things on your hands. <\/p>\n

Overall, Libertine<\/em> is a solid album. It\u2019s plagued by the same issues that her solo albums have always been plagued with; the production and mixing just isn\u2019t right for the style. With the exception of \u2018Paris Paris\u2019, Kristine\u2019s vocals completely dominate the music. In my opinion, this style needs to be driven by guitars (possibly keyboards) and the vocals have to blend with them or it loses all its power. On top of that, Kristine\u2019s voice is beautiful, but thin, and she just can\u2019t carry a pounding rhythm all on her own. Still though, this is her best batch of songs yet and that carries the album a long ways. <\/p>\n

Mark Fisher<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LIV KRISTINELibertine Napalm (2012)Rating: 6.5\/10 Liv Kristine goes way back with many metal fans. In the 90s she ushered in the gothic rock movement, and later introduced electronic elements to the songs, while fronting Norway\u2019s Theatre of Tragedy. In the new millennium she has continued to rule the goth rock and folk metal world markets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,327],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-liv-kristine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6494"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12032,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6494\/revisions\/12032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}