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It's no secret that I love female-fronted Metal of most any stripe so a Gothic Metal album with Japanese folk instruments and melodies certainly piqued my interest. Information about vocalist and band namesake Darkyra Black is not easy to come by with little hint of her history before she joined the lineup of the multi-national Power Metal band Achillea in 2013. Dragon Tears is her first full-length solo album after the digital-only release of the single Tears By Candlelight in 2013. Enough with the history, let's get to the music.

As I stated, this is Gothic Metal at heart with plenty of keyboards, emotive vocal lines and a story of love, murder and revenge. The guitars have a nice sound but are not the main focus and while this album was touted as featuring Japanese traditional pentatonic music, its presence was quite subtle. I'm not a musician and that may explain why I missed it, but there were only a few spots where I could discern anything different or unique on Dragon Tears. Basically, the album sounded a lot like the recent releases from Tristania, Imperia and the like. As for the vocals, Black can certainly sing but comparisons to the Turunens and Jansens of the world are stretching it a bit. She has a distinct, warbling vibrato that, to my ears, clashed with the music on Dragon Tears a lot. There are some nice moments on the album, with "Slither" being a highlight. This song has a dark, atmospheric melody and powerful chorus. The rest of the album, though, is rather dull with Black's somewhat conflicting vocal style dragging it down even further.

There are some good reviews of Dragon Tears out there but it doesn't deliver on any of the hype. Maybe I'm missing something but there are a number of Gothic Metal albums I'd take over this new one from Darkyra Black.