Amaran – Pristene in Bondage – 4/5
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I would love to come out with the opening line of ‘the next best thing since beautiful sin came into my possession,’ but unfortunately that would make me a liar. Having said that, whilst this may not be up there with them, it certainly comes damn close, combining a powerful female vocalist who sings cleanly, without sounding like she’s trying to be tarja turunen (nightwish) with softer neo-classical guitar solo’s and aggressive power metal riffs bordering on heavy metal territory, this is the sort of band that comes my way all too infrequently.
The nightwish comparison is inevitable when dealing with any metal band with a cleanly vocalled female heading the band, so lets get it out of the way shall we? Take nightwish, remove the gothic/symphonic element, and put in a couple of competent guitarists heading an assault both quick and speedy, as well as retaining a high level of melody and you get some way to describing the sound produced.
The guitarists have produced some real noteworthy riffs here, ranging from the slow and ballad-like melodic style, to the angra/blind guardian inspired riffs, retaining an aggressive tone, to the all too infrequent solo’s providing a distinct flavour to the tracks, the only concern is that there are times where riffs seem remarkably similar. For example, it appears they have re-used a riff in both the track ‘wraith’ and ‘coming home,’ simply at a lower pitch on the latter. The riff is a decent one, but it begs the question as to whether they’re running out of idea’s already.
Both the bass and drums are audible, if too quiet in the mix for my liking, though this is nothing unusual, - in fact, it’s not uncommon to have difficulty hearing the bass at all - and both work well at producing a background for the guitars and vocals to build upon. Its clear where the focus is coming from, and the vocals do nothing but successfully add to the high performance of the guitar work.
The vocals aren’t just a Nightwish clone, but instead retain an aggression that puts them somewhere between the stereotype and Magali Luyten (Beautiful Sin, Virus IV). Capable of singing both aggressively and softly with both power and emotion, she complements the two major tones adopted by the guitars wonderfully, and whilst lends a performance perhaps not spectacular, certainly isn’t bad and rather the sound created from her presence lends a unique and distinctive quality. This is only added to with the wholly unexpected growling in ‘katharsis,’ providing a new approach to their sound without sounding too different from the sound already created.
A lot of the appeal for this band comes from the female singer. Whilst the diversity isn’t bad, the guitar riffs done well, none are done spectacularly, and there are a number of bands already doing a similar tone with greater success. But rather than being used as a gimmick, the female vocalist changes the dynamic, it brings a fresh change to an old sound, and they perform consistently – there is no filler to be found here. If you can’t stand clean female vocals in metal, then perhaps this isn’t for you. But if you want a change in your normal power metal listening, you could do a lot worse than to try this out.
Highlights: Inflict, Katharsis, Wraith
By T. Bawden
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