Review by Lumina on February 5, 2026.

A little over a year ago, Luminesce's first full-length album, "Mirrored," was released on January 1, 2025. Those who have read my recent review on that will know how much I liked that album. So, today, before us, we have Luminesce's second full-length, "Like Crushed Violets And Linen". I was a huge fan of Luminesce's first full-length, so really the only important question would obviously be, is this an improvement over that or a disappointment in comparison?

The signature Luminesce sound of progressive technical melodic death metal (what a mouthful that is), along with other things sprinkled in, was something I fell in love with pretty quickly on last year's "Mirrored", and Alice seems to have found a great balance with maintaining that signature sound while also maturing it a little in "Like Crushed Violets And Linen". How she achieved that would be toning the core-influence of "Mirrored" down a little and instead leaning more into the technical death metal aspect. The addition of synths in certain songs, like the first track, for example, is also a somewhat surprising yet welcome addition to Luminesce's sound. I'm really not sure how to describe the feeling "Like Crushed Violets And Linen" gives me compared to "Mirrored", I guess in some ways it feels more confident, mature, and more fleshed out.

"Like Crushed Violets And Linen" starts with the track 'Silver', and it immediately shows how much more confident everything sounds compared to the first track 'Bestow Me Meaning, Matriarch' on last year's "Mirrored". Beginning with the familiar Luminesce riffing, 'Silver' continues onward with an emotional passage in the middle of the track where the aforementioned newly added synths shine, making for a perfect introduction to Luminesce's second album. The immediate 180 back to melodic and technical riffing and the conclusion to 'Silver' being a slow section filled with the bass somewhat taking the lead (which will be a recurring thing) in a breakdown-esque section symbolically pulls you back to reality. Continuing with 'Exploited Monochromaticism', it somewhat follows the same path, aside from the solo near the middle being followed up with a less emotional, yet still neat synth passage. 'Exploited Monochromaticism' also contains a neat guest solo from Alice's friend Eetu Hernesmaa, which is not a big surprise considering how frequently they work together in other projects. Following this track are 'The Covenant Of Counterfeit Stars' and 'To Restore', two tracks which are more reminiscent of "Mirrored" than other tracks on here, which I found to be a good thing. Now arriving at the title track, 'Like Crushed Violets And Linen', we have arguably my favorite song on this album. Starting with more melodic riffs, the title track continues with another solo passage until it gets to probably the most beautiful and emotional section on this album, with the drums going half-time and piano parts complementing everything else that's going on. This goes for about two minutes (quite impressive to me at least, since writing long sections is not my strong suit when it comes to writing music myself) until we get to the 'Lamp Of Fog' equivalent of 'Like Crushed Violets And Linen', 'Lamp Of Fulguration'. There's not too much to say about this one since it really is just the 'Lamp Of Fog' of this album, though I mean that in a good way. I love instrumental tech death, and the sole instrumental tracks on both follow the same naming scheme were quite interesting to see, and it helps the album's pacing, which, in general, is another positive of both Luminesce records. Ending off 'Like Crushed Violets And Linen', we have 'Nepenthean'. A fast package of melodic riffs accompanied by more solos, it transitions well back to the start of 'Like Crushed Violets And Linen'.

The production I want to mention as well, because while not much has changed from "Mirrored", the overall volume level seems to be noticeably louder than on last year's album. It's by no means a loud album, since it's still quieter than the usual metal album, but it was something I thought was worth mentioning, given how much I liked that quietness on "Mirrored". Everything is like in last year's album, which is not very harsh and tends to be very gentle-sounding, so to speak. And that's really the thing I love about Luminesce; it's beautiful, gentle, and just gives me the feeling of a genuine, well-meaning entity speaking to you inside a forest you have gotten yourself lost in. Bands in this genre, like Archspire, Necrophagist, or whoever else you may be able to think of, tend to be on the opposite side of that spectrum, so Alice's technical death metal works usually being like this is a nice and fresh change of pace. Of course, I love both sides, and everything in between of the said spectrum, but people trying something new out of a genuine desire to make something beautiful is quite refreshing.

Perhaps the highlight of this album has to go to the guitar work, as much as I love every other aspect here as well. There are many fun riffs and amazing solos to be found in every song on "Like Crushed Violets And Linen", which I think is partly helped by the more technical nature of this record compared to "Mirrored". Bass is, as usual, not forgotten, which I am ever so thankful for. Musicians more and more forget about bass, and more and more do not give a shit about making bass sections shine, and it always saddens me, so this here again not being the case, like with last year's "Mirrored", is just very neat. Vocals are basically the exact same as on "Mirrored", but that's not a bad thing since I loved them there too.

While I am not a philosophical person or whatever by any means, I can't help but appreciate the well-thought-out lyrics and song titles here. Some standouts would be the lyrics of 'Like Crushed Violets And Linen', and the title of 'Nepenthean'. The latter seems to describe something that induces a blissful, dreamlike state of forgetfulness, particularly regarding sorrow, grief, or pain that was supposedly derived from the Greek "nēpenthés" ("removing grief"), which Luminesce's material is quite good at, so I would say it fits very well. The artwork drawn by the same person as on "Mirrored" is very pretty, so that's again a neat bonus that I much appreciate.

So to answer the question I asked myself earlier,  "Like Crushed Violets And Linen" is somehow even more of an improvement over "Mirrored"  than I could have ever imagined. I meant to finish this review the same day this album was released, but seeing how many complex emotions this album made me feel, and life just being a hindrance, it unfortunately took a while. Either way, "Like Crushed Violets And Linen" is something I can highly recommend to any fan of technical and melodic death metal since it does not get much more unique than this.

Standouts: 'Silver', 'To Restore', 'Like Crushed Violets And Linen', 'Lamp Of Fulguration'

Rating: 10 out of 10