Coronatus - Terra Incognita review

Year : 2011
Genre : Fairy Tale Pop Metal
Label : Massacre Records
Origin : Germany
Rating : 6.5 / 10

Buy it now

The music of Coronatus is your premiere choice if you are a fan of live fantasy. (Or, if you are a paid fan, that is acceptable, as well.) The name of the game herein is richly developed, heavily fantasy-influenced tale-metal with a tolerable pop tint to it, and the premiere saving grace of this ambitious direction is the mere sonic abundance of the delivery.

Coronatus, one has the hunch, had a similar plan in mind than what Italian Ancient Bards have accomplished with their latest to date, furious, powerful dark fairy tale full length, yet this particular baby deliberately lacks all the "it" factors worth failing to put your finger on when it comes to rabid intensity. It is a much more calm release, with JUST an acceptable amount of fantasy queen bigotry exhibited in the female singing department. (Of which you will find exactly none of on the aforementioned dainty Ancient Bards release, which features signing by a female FITA'!)

Coronatus seeks to sound rather complex while remaining pleasantly easy on the ears in character, filling the sonic fabrics with exotic instrumental choices : synthetic strings, bells, woodwinds, Scottish pipes, mutant baby that vomits violently if you pull its tentacle, tame rhythm guitar with no reminder of balls guarantee a shocking experience as you climb aboard this likable Lego metal-ship with hopes that it won't go Titanic on your butt. Read on to get your ticket, Lover.


Coronatus is in the constant-, relatively successful process of seeking for instant pop-metal epicness, thinking that the toy-guitar on the left channel makes it HEAVY!! MMMET'LLL!!! Oh my God! It DOES! The good news is that the release is able to convey a wide palette of related emotions with sufficient convince power, and the bad news is that the spin is a tad more tediously volumetric in its length than it can remain super-focused for. And yes, it is absofuckinglutely expectable from a record to be super-focused, or at least, attempt to do that and spot-reject elements that do not come through as efficiently. As hinted, there is a solid amount of heavily deranged goth-bigotry on display here that will make nothing else than rob you out of luscious attention, but, you won't regret it (that much) and this is the charming part.

The most relevant problem this release is prone to suffer from is the inconsistent songwriting that haunts the spin as a full declaration. Whenever the record sounds to have no true content to offer, it takes the brave-, but relatively misplaced and incompetent liberty to harass your receptors with clumsy experimental decisions in at attempt to escape the terrible, terrible grasp of uninspired fairy tale metalcore. Track number 9, called "In Signo Crucis", for example, is a good example of this disorganized pacing, in which you can't help but be entertained, nevertheless. And WHAT an "amazing" drum solo!! GTFO, I'm begging you.

There is no doubt at all that the record has tremendous amount of work in it, but a good dosage of that "tremendous amount" is originated from rudimentary-, on occasion, even clueless compositional techniques, and, funnily enough, the record weighs in even more likable with all the qualms you could raise regarding the blemishes in its integrity. On Coronatus' Terra Incognita, an absolutely risk free-, but likable variant of tale-metal seeks your appreciation. Regardless of its deep-pinkish direction, the release has quite sufficient complexity - even with its numerous weaker parts - to command your awareness to take it serious while Christmas is near the door.

Rating : 6.5 / 10

If you want, check out my music

and / or

Buy me beer. Read more!

Trillium - Alloy review

Year : 2011
Genre : Melodic Gothic Metal
Label : Frontiers Records
Origin : Germany
Rating : 6.6 / 10

Buy it now

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

If you want, check out my music

and / or

Buy me beer. Read more!

Inside You - That Occurs Around Us review

Year : 2011
Genre : Gothic - Industrial
Label : CD Maximus
Origin : Russia
Rating : 8.2 / 10

Fellow countrymen of mixed martial arts WarGod Fedor Emelianenko bring you some quite properly presented mixture of industrialized goth vibes, that which, fortunately enough, has nothing at all to do with an intent to resonate registers of gloom, sorrow and related sentiments. Instead, Inside You's That Occurs Around Us transmits from the more angst-filled, nevertheless, playful and strangely beautiful pole of the goth palette, cultivating a mixture that is akin to what you would expect if to marry Rammstein with Sisters of Mercy. This Russian approach of freshly presented goth fury comes to you with a true passion behind itself, resulting in 51 minutes of a pleasantly varied experience gravitating around an easily decipherable, energetic goth rage. A goth rage that has the evident agenda to bath you in feelings of hot and playful intensity, utterly refraining from theoretic means of turning you into a hollow stack of flesh and bones, having abused your awareness and raped your soul good and proper.



The output features two songs sung in Russian language, but do not be afraid, or not that much, anyway : these two tracks are at the end of the album, and they do not at all lack the impact characterizing the first nine contributions. As noted, it is quite evident that Inside You has a true passion for this style, and they grasp a solid understanding of how this shape of music is able to deliver its intricacies in the most efficient manner : the guitar is thick and quite sci-fi sounding, hardly, if ever addressing its desire to go on an autonomous stroll on its own, instead it serves as the ever-present and welcomed solution to establish a melodic pulse that is ready to ensue into a wall of sound when need dictates. Synths and various industrial elements are widely used throughout the record to establish a convoluted mass of sonic richness along the intensified portions of the release.

Intensity and sanely positioned musical routes between these intense periods are essential building blocks on the LP : Inside You, fortunately enough, has more diverse of an understanding of their favorite genre than going slow and going furious, so the readiness and playfulness they chase the grooves around with, guarantees, in fact, a surprisingly well-varied and freshly presented experience, coming through as a constant, integral vibe not a tad less mature than what the genre's top of the heat has to offer.

From a vocal point of view, one has a hunch that there are numerous vocalists on their respective hunt here, but it comes off as a fortunate development, as all singers have some audible desire to declare passionately, nevertheless staying away wisely from doing extreme things of ridicule with their vocal cords, like some metal corish "me mummy neva luhuvd meheeee" affair or what not.

The majority of the output comes to you along fast, nevertheless quite cleverly varied registers, with an occasional down tempo delivery being spiced on the top of the whole fabric. These slower deliveries, too, have the same passion and love for the genre as proper fuel behind them, so rest assured that they won't disappoint, and their role will be utterly appreciated when Inside You unleashes the charming form of goth angst in the very next moment.

Rating : 8.2 / 10If you liked this article, check out my music

and / or

Buy me beer. Read more!