So one or the other promo found it's way into this badge of reviews after all... I first heard this at Carl's in San Antonio and back then I already thought this was pretty OK. Then by lucky chance I received an e-mail out of nowhere from Mikael (Satan does work in mysterious ways, doesn't he ?) and used the chance to grab off a promo. I certainly won't make a habit out of deliberately asking for promos, hehehe, but this one is pretty cool after a while of getting into it. The whole idea about TEARSTAINED is to do a modernized version of KING DIAMOND. I would put it somewhere between the last CDs of BIFROST and PRIMORDIAL though. There's still too many norsecory passages for my taste but overall Mikael does things surprisingly well... It's not (yet ?) a personal favourite of mine but it's certainly an original attempt on Metal and you should check on that if you have the chance to...!!

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