Album a Day: Bella Morte - Remains (2002 Remastered Edition)

I love Bella Morte. I especially love old Bella Morte. And that's not to say that I don't love new Bella Morte because there's a great place for what they do now but when you fall in love with a band's original sound you have to add nostalgia to whatever quality there is to the music. I'm sure to some this will make me seem young (although creeping up on 26 ain't too bad) but Bella Morte was the first band I really ever saw play a show live (not counting when I was in summer camp and Phineas Gage did a show as kick ass as that was) when I saw them with some of my closest friends in some sort of classroom at UConn (this is the show where they recorded their rare cover of My Heart Will Go On for anyone that has heard that, and anyone that hasn't should). This is also back when people were starting to use computers for backing tracks but really no one had laptops and especially not ipods and so Bella Morte brought along their tower computer for the backing tracks. Anyway, nostalgia aside, this remains (get it? it's a pun) one of my favorite albums. Bella Morte has always had that great mix of goth, deathrock, darkwave, and whatever else you want to call their sound and this album really leans more on the reflective/emotional side of the boys from Charlottesville while still boasting a few of the fun tracks that would later become more of a staple in the Bella Morte sound. This album also just sounds so slick for a debut album and is really important when considering the discography of the band. Favorite tracks: One Winter's Night, Remorse, Angels & Faith, As We Descend, Nevere, and Remains