Hi again MadScientist,
Indeed, the hunchback of Notre-Dame is exactly what it evoked to me, with fates reversed… Apparently the guitarist-composer was initially amused by doom/goth recipes with a “classic” accent. I feel the sample you provided above probably belongs to a universe similar to where he came from, so that would be why in an early interview in company of Kai Hahto he sounded like he was welcoming Aleah’s input simply as a way to embelish his own art:
YouTube: Swallow the Sun interview (2012-Sep-18)
Though keep in mind my perspective is just too fresh to develop with any confidence on the whole context.
Yet i gathered he was eventually captured in his own strategy, eventually carrying the lady composer and singer high on his shoulders until mutual transmutations occured… Though kind of late as they learned the bad news near the end of 2013, i think, e.g. long after “Cathedral Walls” (by StS) which i regard as a 1st culmination preceeding their true final achievement: the Trees of Eternity album “Hour of the Nightingale” released with her gone on November 11, 2016. I figure there may be regrets attached to this delay.
Hallatar was supposed to perpetuate the new “light” but judging from a February 2018 video i’d be worried at the sight of the surviving performer’s veins, ready to explode after loosing his way - if not soul…
Aleah’s contrasting contribution worked too well as a seed and it wasn’t meant to last.
Good day, have fun!! 