At last, after 8 years of silence, Qntal are back with a new album!

The band was formed in 1992 and has released two outstanding albums ("I","II") in the 90's.The concept of their releases was (and still is) to combine medieval music with contemporary
electronic sounds. Success in this was guaranteed since behind the project was the mastermind
of Deine Lakaien, Ernst Horn and the leading members of the medieval act Estampie, Sigrid "Syrah" Hausen and Michael Popp. Horn is no longer a part of the band, he has parted and formed Helium Vola, a band on the same music style of the good old Qntal. New keyboarder/composer for the band is now Philipp ”Fil” Groth.

And here we are, in the year 2003 with the third album from Qntal entitled "III / Tristan and
Isolde". It is a concept album , an imaginary soundtrack for the tragic love story of Tristan and Isolde, comprising of 13 songs, a total of 71 minutes of music.

"III" is a pleasant album to listen, with beautiful melodies dressed with enchanting vocals from Syrah. However, as far as the compositions are concerned, it is much different from the past discography of the band.The electronic sounds and compositions are noticeably freshened up and -naturally- little remind the style we were used to.

Regarding the structure of the album, I noticed that the songs are balanced in two types: the classic Qntal type tracks
and those that mark the new, more atmospheric orientation of the band.
On the first category tracks we have "Name der rose" a fast paced , intended to be hit song with harsh electronic beats,"Am morgen fruo" on the same style, "Ecce gratum"-an "Ad mortem festinamus"-type track,"Maravillosos" a successful reproduction of the old Qntal ballads.
The second category tracks are slow, etherial, and dreamy.
Syrah's voice is brought to the center of the attention and she does some of her finest interpretations here. Best moments: "Maiden in the mor",a slow atmospheric composion in a trip hoppish music form. "Lasse", a beautiful slow paced track, in a hypnotic music background and "Spiegelglas" the absolut highlight of the album on the same style."Entre moi et mon amin" is an other eerie and wonderful composition.

Summing up.
I suppose that the enemy of an objective review of this cd is the ghost of the old Qntal. I was not quite font of the fast paced, intended-to-be-hits tracks but i admit that the reason is that i could never avoid comparing those to the so familiar
Horn's soundscapes to which my ears were used. However, I found particularly beautiful the slow atmospheric compositions of the album. They sounded too original to be compared to any previous work of the band.

Rating this album in comparison to the former discography of the band would be unfair from my part, since this one is an entirely different thing. And -objectively- it is a good different
thing.. i must admit.