by Vincent Jeffries
The pretense of this group's name and their debut record's title are generally in keeping with the tenets of '90s Euro-metal. Dominated by the many Scandinavian derivations of death, black, goth, and power metal, the movement was as strong as ever when Lake of Tears tossed this disc into the overcrowded metal marketplace. While there were a few decent notices, not much was made of this recording, and for good reason. The guitar work is especially unremarkable, as too many well-worn riffs litter Greater Art, that is, when riffs are attempted at all. Much of the time, a pallid chugging is all Lake of Tears can come up with to support the hoarsely shouted vocals that lack the vivid tone that defines black and death metal ranting, while the guitars lack the heft of doom or sludge metal, making the recording difficult to categorize, but not in a good way. So much mid- to slow-tempo nothingness simply makes Greater Art one to avoid.