Diorama - Even The Devil Doesn't Care

Diorama has long been a staple act in darkwave since Torben Wendt as main man behind Diorama was discovered by Adrian Hates of Diary Of Dreams in 1996. Their first and second albums were quite nice and have a few good songs, but the albums after that all sound like one more or less dull mess, and this new one is no exception.

What saves the album from mediocrity is the excellent production. It sounds all very clear and lush, and the sounds are very pretty. But this album also followes the modus operandi of all their albums after the second one "Her Liquid Arms". Songs which just keep on going without any recognizable hooks and choruses. If i listen to a Diorama album i always have a very hard time to remember what i just actually heard. It just moves around without even getting noticed when you are doing other stuff. The good albums always distract me from doing chores and such, and i can leave this one on and not be bothered. Well, at least it gets the dishes done!

"The Scale" sounds like an attempt for the dancefloor, but i would surely opt for other material. The title track sounds like an attempt to do something Deine Lakaien like, but you cant topple the voice of Alexander Veljanov or the musical qualities of Ernst Horn. So this one also ends somewhere in the mediocrity range. The addition of guitars also sounds not very favorable to me, because this is cliched out riffing like we hear in many more typical German darkwave bands. Getting good and original guitar players always seem a problem for bands like this, but lets be fair. If you can play the guitar really good, there are genres more suitable to show your art than this kind of dark popmusic. Metal or Progressive rock for instance.

'Even The Devil Doesn't Care' is an album which will probably please the fans they already have or lovers of that other quite dull darkwave band Diary Of Dreams. Because this is a typical Diorama album they have been making for years now. If that is your thing, go for it. The progressive listener into darkwave is better off searching out modern darkwave bands like Light Asylum, Austra, Trust or Brandy Kills. Jun 09 2013