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This album seems to be making quite a buzz from the reviews that I've read so far. Being completely oblivious to this awesome band (who have been around since the early 90's and have delivered about a half a dozen full-length releases) I was completely blown away by "Black Brick Road". Here's another band whose discography I have to hunt down now. And judging by how unknown they are, I doubt it's going to be easy. As far as I understand, Lake Of Tears parted ways a couple of years ago and decided not to continue, and this is supposed to be the big glorious comeback. And I will not argue against why the fans have been so pleased. It is completely warranted.

In any case, this is absolutely beautiful music. Beautiful as in on a dull and dreary day, the clouds in the sky cleaved apart and along with a beam of light, this graceful CD descended. I can't quite put my finger on it, as this is not really Gothic Metal. There are a lot of Psychedelic influences here. You get that 60s-70s psych rock type of feeling from this. There are no 'beauty and the beast' type of vocals on it. Actually, no 'beast' vocals at all, and only one song really features a female on the vox. The music is soothing and extremely melodic, but when it needs to hit you hard, it's got that assault rifle loaded and ready. The music is quite a bit layered, as in there are a few things you can be focusing on at any given time. They noodle around with some weird and traditional instruments here and there that are absolutely killer with the music. I love this album. But I doubt most metalheads would. This type of beauty can only be appreciated by a few. Think Tiamat, only much better song-writing and atmosphere to it. I can't pick which songs are the best of the stock here. So I will point to the two - not up to par with the rest – tracks. "Sister Sinister" with its weird and happy, happy melodies to it really detracts from the desolate environment of the rest of the album; and "Crazyman" – a song with nothing really wrong with it, but again, sounds out of place from the rest. It is more of a heavy metal stomper than the dark yet spirited atmosphere prevalent on the other tracks.

I can't really describe the music on paper. It is really weird and cool. The first 3 tracks are so cool that despite their depressing nature, the melodies and riffs seem to have a way of putting a smile on the listener's face…because they are so catchy and admirable in terms of song-writing. I don't like Stoner rock, nor do I have much tolerance for bullshit atmospheric faggotry. This album finds a nice little niche somewhere between Goth metal, traditional metal and atmospheric stoner rock. I know the pot-heads will love this stuff. It has a way of taking you away from things.

Not recommended for the extreme metal elitists. Actually, this album is not recommended for anybody, except the open-minded.