The
competition in the female fronted melodic metal weight class is heavy as lead.
Nighwish, Epica, Within Temptation, Evanescense are the giants in the genre and
can the 6 Austrian members in Illuminata (Italian translation: Enlightened)
compete with these big champs? Well, the unique and special spices they have in
the mixture are the 2 strong female lead vocalist and they have created a
special and own sound with this debut album A World So Cold.
The
orchestral part is significant with strong guitars, powerful rhythm section and
with violins, flutes and beautiful vocal harmonies with energetic tempo changes
that creates the pompous and powerful sound environment that genre represents.
After couple of spins, I have a hard time to sort the tracks out, it gets quite
similar and elementary in all the musical glory.
What
I remember and can mark as my favourite songs are the ones with awesome guitar
solos or like in the track "Lost In Picturesque" where the guys sing briefly,
they should give them more vocal space. I think with contribution of male
vocals, they would have changed the nature of some of the tracks.
"Cold Hands Warm Hearts" is a gentle and at the same time hard metal track with
power in the lyrics. In next track "End My Agony" the tempo is faster and this
is the best song on A World So Cold, where both Joanna and Katarzyna on vocals
challenge each other and the balance in Luki's guitar is perfect. The high
flying song "The World Collector" is one of the best songs, where the Christoph
and Tom get an extra praise. I must say that it isn't often one the best tracks
is placed as the last one on the album, but "Metamorphobia II" is a power ballad
which stung me right in the heart.
A
nice piece of art and I hope that the fans in this genre will buy this album,
because it's worth every penny, dollar or euro!
