Review: "Komodia" by Austrian Gothic Metal Band Dreams of Sanity

Austria is probably not a country that many heavy metal bands would associate with the genre. But yes there is a heavy metal scene in Austria. Dreams of Sanity is another band that was a pleasure to listen to. Their first album called Komodia had two vocalists. These vocalists were Sandra Schleret and Martina Hornbacher. The founding members of Dreams of Sanity are Christian K. Marx and Michael Knoflach. However, by the time they released their album called The Game, the band would end up becoming an Austrian and Swiss band.

The best song in the album Is "Komodia 1 (The Beginning)"

Komodia also has four songs that have the same name but are divided into parts. The first part or song is known as the beginning. Sandra starts singing this song and there is chanting in the background. The song is about someone that has lost their will to live. They are walking in the moonlight when they discover an old man. The woman asks the man for his help. However, the man just looks at her as his lips don’t move at all. There is godlike quality in this man as he goes to the moon to help the woman lift her curse. The end of the song has a beautiful riff, one of the most beautiful parts in the genre of Gothic metal.

Komodia: the rest of the album pros and cons

Beatrice is a short instrumental song followed by Komodia 2 (The Dream). This song is about a man who returns to an empty house. He takes off his clothes and goes to sleep with the hope of dying in his sleep. Instead, the man sees an interesting dream. Musically, I sense a sort of Iron Maiden influence. And keep in mind, Komodia was released in 1997 a full 20+ years after the formation of Iron Maiden so that band had a long time to influence other bands. As the song concludes, the man wakes up in the morning with a foggy brain and this fogginess is expected to stay with him. Her leaves the house trying to forget about his boring life. And sadly, no one even wants to remember this man’s life. The song is a description of a man that is loner or wanderer that is accepted by no other person. Komodia 3 (The Meeting) as well as the other three parts lyrically are inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy. There is some keyboard orchestration in this song. If you enjoyed the album Suspiria by the band Darkwell, you should definitely find Komodia an enjoyable listen as well. Komodia has Gothic metal and standard heavy metal influences as well. Komodia 3 also has some electronic sounds in it as well. The song speeds up with Sandra’s voice in there as well. Komodia 4 also has Martina’s voice singing along with Sandra. Komodia is a good album but it suffers from musical repetition in some cases especially in the song called The Prophet. However, the good quality about that song and the album in general is the melodic dual vocal parts. Komodia is not as good of an album as The Game. The strongest songs in Komodia are Komodia 1 (The Beginning), Beatrice, and Komodia 2 (The Dream).

Dreams of Sanity would disband after being dropped by their record label Hall of Sermon. In 2002, the career of this band would end but I hope that people can keep in mind that even in Austria there is heavy metal to be enjoyed and appreciated.