When we first listen to the debut album of this Montreal band, we can easily understand the craze for their songs on MP3.com, that allowed Howling Syn to earn more than 11,000 dollars in royalties for playback and downloading! Forebearers of Dusk is an ambitious product that will please to medieval and gothic music lovers and to fans of Within Temptation, Love Like Blood and Moonspell to name a few. After the good points, the bad ones: the mix is sometimes uneven, making Patryk Pigeon's and Sophie LeMay's vocals - which are not the strongest point of the album - sometimes sound too distant in comparison with the instruments. Howling Syn is nevertheless a promising band. Worth noting: the presence of Decayed Remains singer Éric Massicotte on Emperors of Tomorrow.

by Christine Fortier

Translated from French