(Review from progarchives.com, metal-archives.com, amazon)

Haggard was founded in 1991 and started playing unoriginal and a little bit uninspired death metal. They managed to change their musicial style to something way sophisticated – then Haggard became one of the first classical/orchestral/symphonic metal bands in the world.

Black Sabbath meets Johann Sebastian Bach? This may be a very loose description of the 16-member outfit from Munich, but the fact is their roots lie as much in death metal as in classical/medieval music. Their albums combine some fine classical moments (cello, flute, oboe, harp, violin as well as dreamy female vocals) with the iron riffs, growling male vocals and raw violence of death metal bands.

The album has a very tight structure and powerful songwriting combining metal and classical music perfectly — a balance between heavy (metal) and soft (classical) music. What an excellent harmony. The band has a perfect balance between modern electrical instrument skills as well as those acoustic ones, all performed flawlessly.

Along only 41 minutes there are great operatic chores, death metal vocals, heavy guitars, but mostly about 15 traditional organs that give Haggard their own identity and sets them appart from the rest of the bands that follow this music pattern.

Line-up:
- Florian Bartl / oboe
- Karin Bodenmüller / soprano voice
- Fiffi Fuhrmann / crumhorn
- Kathrin Hertz / violoncello
- Steffi Hertz / viola
- Danny Klupp / guitars
- Kerstin Krainer / violin
- Lutz Marsen / drums, kettle drums
- Robert Müller / clarinet
- Andi Nad / bass
- Asis Nasseri / vocals, grunts, guitars
- Kathrin Pechlof / harp
- Sasema / soprano voice
- Florian Schellinger / bass voice
- Hans Wolf / piano, synths, cemballo
- Christoph von Zastrow / flute
with
- Schalleluja Kammerchor / chorus

Track List:
01. Chapter I – The Day As Heaven Wept – 5:46
02. Chapter II – Origin Of A Crystal Soul – 5:55
03. Requiem In D-Minor – 2:08
04. Chapter III – In A Pale Moon’s Shadow – 9:38
05. Cantus Firmus In A-Minor – 2:32
06. Chapter IV – De La Morte Noire – 8:02
07. Chapter V – Lost (Robin’s Song) – 4:25
08. Outro – A Midnight Gathering – 2:59

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