Lake of Tears

C

onsisting of Daniel Brennare (vocals), Mikael Larsson (bass), Johan Oudhuis (drums) and Jonas Eriksson (guitar), Lake Of Tears opened up shop in 1992. The Greater Art (1994; their premier recording and produced by Cemetary main man Mathias Lodmalm), and Headstones (1995) showed this band as a capable group of musicians who played classic dark and melodic punk styles much like Cemetary. But recognition in this genre would elude them until their third opus, A Crimson Cosmos (1997), an album that saw them performing without Eriksson.

Forever Autumn (1999) was a change of direction, or more precisely a change of beat for this band. Now their music took a more serious and darker undertone, almost gloomy and slower but avoided apocalyptic fantasies while maintaining thrash tendencies. They drifted from hard rock undercurrents to gothic ones, firmly lodging themselves into the gothic sub genre. The seriousness and intricacies of this recording were compared to the likes of Paradise Lost's Lily Anne or Metallica's Come Night I Reign. The album also featured the keyboard work of Christian Saarinen. Despite the announcement of an imminent break up they released The Neonai (2002) as a triad again (without Saarinen) to complete contractual obligations. The album was an electronica-influenced album relying on drum machines and uncharacteristically slick production values. The band had finally split in the mean time leaving the album unreleased until 2002.