Toal – Ritus Ex Silenti (Album – DarkTunes Music Group)
Genre/Influences: Dark-Pop, Wave-Pop.
Format: Digital.
Background/Info: German formation Toal released a debut-EP entitled “Timeless”-EP in 2019 and last year struck back with their debut full-length album. The work features ten songs plus seven remixes.
Content: Toal deals with a sound, which is not that easy to define. It however clearly sounds inspired by a dark approach in Electro-Pop. The songs have something evasive, sometimes moving into Cinematographic passages and even touching ground with a kind of ‘Cabaret-Noir’-style. The female vocals are sometimes reminding me of a mix between L’Âme Immortelle and Kirlian Camera while the production might appeal for lovers of Blutengel.
Remixes have been accomplished by [:SITD:] , L’Âme Immortelle, Chrom, ES23, Mental Exile and HzweiG. There’s also one remix featuring SynthAttack.
+ + + : I like the mix between the different influences, but globally speaking Toal deals with a rather personal Dark-Electro-Pop approach. This band is not a new emulation of an idol, but tries to bring something different merging different influences with each other. The now sensual and then dreamy-like vocal parts create a delicious match with the music. The album is missing an ‘absolute’ hit, but features multiple cool songs instead. I also have to say a word about the impressive list of remixers. L’Âme Immortelle, Chrom and ES23 did a really great job.
– – – : I think this band has more potential than what came out at this work.
Conclusion: “Ritus Ex Silenti” is a very promising debut album resulting from a creative process.
Best songs: “Ritual”, “Unreal World”, “Trapped Heart” + “Trapped Heart – Remix by Tom Chrom”, “Unreal World – L’Âme Immortelle Remix”, “Unreal World – ES23 Remix”.
Rate: (7½).
Artist: www.facebook.com/toal.band
Since you’re here … … we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive. If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 5 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. The donations are safely powered by Paypal.
