Samsara

Samsara is the sixth album, on which To/Die/For drew dark, lyrical gothic metal through shadowed melody, heavy guitar and restrained vocals. Released in 2011 after a long hiatus. The songs are melancholy, but the choruses have strong hooks, turning quiet pain into large emotion. It's a comeback record after fully five years, and it showed that the band's axis hadn't wavered at all — the finish betrays nothing of the length of the gap. The balance between the dense sonic picture and the singing's beauty is good, and a night-like air wraps the whole thing. From the opener “Kissing the Flames” through “Damned Rapture,” “Cry for Love,” “Death Comes in March,” “Folie á Deux (Madness for Two),” “Hail of Bullets,” “Love's a Sickness,” “Raving Hearts” and “Oblivion: Vision” to the closing “Someday Somewhere Somehow,” the flow never stalls. Just as the title — meaning the cycle of rebirth — suggests, the way it closes in a circle also stays with you. A record for when you want to soak in wistful heavy rock.