Ador Dorath - Not your usual operatic metal

I've noticed lately that a lot of the female fronted symphonic metal bands I have liked in the past are caught up in the same trend. Strip out the male vocal, get rid of the growls, add a catchy chorus and far too many pop sensibilities. It's not a good trend.

Fortunately I have found something to fill this niche that seems to be opening up in the market. Ador Dorath are a Czech black metal band who use operatic female vocal alongside the male grunts, growls and general grizzliness. It's an assault on the ears, with the various layers mixing, splitting and competing for dominance. It's a formidable musical bombardment.

It's hard to find their albums for sale anywhere near the UK, and the band's label, Shindy, provided little information on how to get international shipping. They do allow cash on collection, though, which is interesting. I finally found obscene.cz, a Czech record store with no online shipping calculation. I've placed an order and now I'm waiting for them to tell me how to pay!

Coincidentally the band are touring with Silent Stream Of Godless Elegy in the Czech republic while we're over there on holiday. Unfortunately the venue is some 360km away from our hotel so we're unlikely to get to it. We'll have to plan our next Czech city break around the local gig guides.

I've ordered all three of Ador Dorath's albums, so I'll do some sort of massive review later on. In the meantime, here's the video for V.I.T.R.I.O.L. from Symbols, released in 2005.

You can hear more tracks from all the albums on the band's MySpace page.