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Solitude productions certainly seem to be churning out some high quality doom at the moment, and you'd really have problems finding fault in this release by Serbian doom-meisters Tales of Dark. I'd been lucky enough to check out the band's demo 'Kori U Tame' from a Serbian friend of mine (cheers Yuri!), which although I was moderately impressed with, didn't really register on my radar for too long. Many line-up changes since, and Tales of Dark seem a tighter-knit unit than ever before, focusing their energies solely on a more refined melancholic brand of doom-death, concentrating on developing the miserable atmosphere of their demo to another level. Although there is a hue of melancholy throughout the album, this is far from depressing music. In fact, I'd say there is actually some uplifting music on offer here (most notably in the more grandiose, almost progressive feel to some of the songs)

There's a great free-flowing feel about this album, while although emanating the inevitable nods to various other legendary doom death bands (I'm determined not to mention My Dying Bride again… FUCK!!), shows an intuitive use of female vocals more freely than most bands in the genre, without turning the aura of the music gothic and queer. The band aren't afraid to experiment with different tempos either, with some killer blasting sections filled with optimum riffage, simultaneously keeping the melancholic edge with a sheath of melodic guitar-line or piano. The male vocals range between clean (another new addition to the band's repertoire from the demo days), and gravelly growls, in keeping with the genres usual limits, but the female vocals occasionally add a slightly folkier edge to some of the songs, to which the music takes a twist to accompany (see '...Of Grandiose Fevers And Passion Arcane' for full details). Epic, sincere and warm, Fragile Monuments is certainly an album to pick up for those doom-loving souls floating around the Crypt – satisfaction guaranteed.