“Tales For Bad Girls” marks the second CD release for Spanish gothic metal band Forever Slave. The CD features 12 tracks and sports a fitting title with themes like AIDS, the relations between people of the same sex, cybersex, the mistreatment of women, the Pederasty and a collection of "forbidden" relationships. Forever Slave along with Firewind provided support for Kamelot's Ghost Opera European Tour in April/May 2008.

The opening track is named "Dickhead!", a very emotional song that tells the story of a priest who molests his16 year old live-in maid. "Gothix Girls" begins with a powerful beat and describes a cybersex relationship. It incorporates some lead male vocals that sound great and portray the relationship between the man and woman. In "Kristin A.I.D.S.", we hear about a woman who "loved by mistake" and now spends her time in bed as she awaits a death from AIDS. This is one my favorites from the album and has a rhythm that will have you tapping your foot.

"Afterlife" and "Our Story" are both solid tracks with good melodies and a rare but nice guitar solo in "Our Story". "The Lovers" is a beautiful, flowing ballad about two lovers who were torn apart by war and reunited only by death years later.

"Larmes et Roses" (translated Tears and Roses) is a memorable song that features French lyrics and a few sections with male vocals. "My Girl (She Loves Her)" is another song with a memorable melody that tells of a girl reminiscing about one summer when she had a relationship with another girl. "Gasoline" is a fast and heavy song, perfect for the closing track.

It took a few spins of this CD before some of the songs started to grow on me. The singer has a noteworthy voice but needs more variety in her singing style. The addition of male lead and background vocals from time to time is great and really adds depth to the songs. As is the often the case with vocalists who do not sing in their native language, the lyrics suffer from a less than perfect use of the English language. Pronunciation is also lacking, making it difficult to understand the lyrics by listening alone. The lyrics themselves are rather raw, which is not necessarily a bad thing, just different.

The cover art on this CD is very nice – great colors and detail. The CD booklet is also well done with readable lyrics and a band photo in the center. The credits note that artwork and photography were done by the singer, Lady Angellyca. So it seems she has several areas of talent, which gives her a little more credibility in my opinion.

Overall, this is a promising album for fans of female-fronted Goth music. It's not as diverse-sounding as Evanescence, but it's definitely worth checking out.

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