Genre : Melodic Gothic Metal
Label : Frontiers Records
Origin : Germany
Rating : 6.6 / 10
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Germany's Trillium comes forth with a heavy duty mindhack attempt to reprogram your mind via rudimentary NLP skills, making you believe that you are about to be subjected to the treatment of American metalcore act Trivium, but : naaah, this is another band, fronted by local singer Lady Amanda Sommerville, and this here fresh LP, Alloy, is doing an acceptable job at fixing your myriad cravings and sentiments Gothic enough if and when they are not involving too serious things like blood and / or turning into a monster for the inherent fun of it.
The album sounds to be a mixed result, - metaphorically, too - and here is why : some songs are pretty tight, their numbers are numerous, but a healthy amount of the builds are enervated contributions at best, opening track Machine Gun - a terribly scant choice for an opener - comes to mind : "I'm a machine gun, and I'm never gonna quit, you are under fire." OK, I think I'm gonna cry. Oh Amanda. You are a Goth mistress for Nosferatu's sake, bite my neck instead, or at least spank me real good or something. Your ripe Goth arch-muse Amanda Sommerville is the main attraction here, making this delivery similar in character to the risk-free fairy tale metal calculatedly delivered by Netherlands' Within Temptation, but Magistratess Sommerville has a more pronounced affection for the dark side - haaaaa, phuuuuu, haaaaa, phuuuuu - than the singer Lady of Within Temptation whose name I have no clue nor interest about at the moment, but both of these Mistresses have solid pipes AND a consorting lack of truly defining vocal qualities, sipp!, sipp!. Amanda Sommerville also brings a brutal dose of Free Dominguez influence, as her head voice / whistle register exclusively finds melodies that Kidney Thieves' awesometicular Free Dominguez is the original creator / resonator of. There is music behind Amanda on this record, too. Guys, let's talk about the music.
Trillium's Alloy is accessible, Goth bubblegum metal with logically, mathematically engineered gloom and bijou-epicness written all over it, but, this is not the kind of gloom that emerges to kick your hideous ass to hell and back, it is more like a session with a comic book psychiatrist lady sitting in the armchair while you have a chance to secretly stare at her quality black stockings filled with quality legs, and the memory of the session remains of JUST that, as well. Musically, this is a decently produced / realized instant microwave metal spin, and it does not even want to be bombastic or intimidating while addressing its own charmingly limited-, but solidly delivered toy-cleaver qualities.
The album has maybe 3-4 potential songs - among 12 - with bigger emotional heft and sonic inventiveness in them, but there are tunes as well of the caliber a rabid metal maniac will dismiss in rampant bursts of yellow foam, outcrying a shameless display of radio friendly charlatanism, like during track number 6, called Mistaken. The chorus of the song is the textbook definition of "look!! a radio chorus, my favorite love!" In track 7, a male singer joins into the fray to reveal his capabilities at delivering epic metal with epic determination and the appropriate body posture I imagine - let alone the ambition that is enough to shatter the stratosphere infinite times - , and, while he is uhuh, uhuh, decent, I guess, - nowhere near the galaxy of Your Personal Doom God Butch Balich though - honestly he sounds like he needs urgent matters to take care of first, and it is very comforting to hear Amanda taking the lead back from time to time, in my opinion.
The most admirable attribute of this release is its length, - and I'm not talking ONLY about Amanda's sublimely realized legs right now - because the LP noticeably has diligent work and enthusiastic creative force behind it, yet never forget, that these resources were utilized exclusively to deliver you risk free pink bubblegum metal with radio friendly qualities for 56 minutes. With a keen affection placed on mid-tempo builds and prolonged verse/chorus structures in which Amanda can warm her pipes around safely in her dangerless comfort zone, this here is a kind, friendly German fairy tale metal delivery that is as easy and safe to listen to as it is to not to at all.
Rating : 6.6 / 10
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