The Eden House - Songs For The Broken Ones album review

Nephilim men build a bigger dwelling for album three

By
( )
published
The Eden House - Songs For The Broken Ones album artwork

You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

A few months before the release of The Eden House’s second album _Half-_Life, co-founding bassist Tony Pettitt announced he was rejoining his old band, Fields Of The Nephilim. But instead of signalling their demise, it marked the beginning of a new period of creativity, and the result is the atmospheric Songs For The Broken Ones.

Core members Pettitt, guitarist Stephen Carey and former Nephilim drummer Simon Rippin have created an album that builds on their trademark Floydian soundscapes and melancholic vocals, but also brings in some unexpected nuances from special guests that include Sneaker Pimps’ Kelli Ali and Faith & The Muse chanteuse Monica Richards. There are fragile echoes of Cocteau Twins in the haunting The Ghost Of You, flamenco flourishes on the danceable lead single Verdades, and brooding gothic atmospheres on 12th Night. Anathema’s Lee Douglas provides sultry vocals on the Mazzy Star-esque It’s Just A Death, while violinist Bob Loveday and new vocalist Louise Crane (ex-Solemn Novena) spice up the Eastern-inspired Misery. Then there’s the ambitious trip-hop-inspired closer, The Ardent Tide, just shy of nine minutes. A natural follow-up to Half-Life, this reaffirms THE’s place in the scene.

Natasha Scharf
Natasha Scharf
Deputy Editor, Prog

Contributing to Prog since the very first issue, writer and broadcaster Natasha Scharf was the magazine’s News Editor before she took up her current role of Deputy Editor, and has interviewed some of the best-known acts in the progressive music world from ELP, Yes and Marillion to Nightwish, Dream Theater and TesseracT. Starting young, she set up her first music fanzine in the late 80s and became a regular contributor to local newspapers and magazines over the next decade. The 00s would see her running the dark music magazine, Meltdown, as well as contributing to Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Terrorizer and Artrocker. Author of music subculture books The Art Of Gothic and Worldwide Gothic, she’s since written album sleeve notes for Cherry Red, and also co-wrote Tarja Turunen’s memoirs, Singing In My Blood. Beyond the written word, Natasha has spent several decades as a club DJ, spinning tunes at aftershow parties for Metallica, Motörhead and Nine Inch Nails. She’s currently the only member of the Prog team to have appeared on the magazine’s cover.