2006-02-20
I have to say I was rather pleasantly surprised from this, the debut album of a young band from Serbia and Montenegro, that creates symphonic and progressive power metal with female vocals, in the vein of
Nightwish .
The band certainly has a fair share of talent, first mention should go the female vocalist Dunja Deuric, she is one of the few female vocalists that manage to fit in the orchestral power metal the band creates, she has quite an impressive operatic voice that isn’t any lesser than Ex-Nightwish vocalist Tarja's. Further mention should go the Keyboardist and male vocalist Damjan Deuric, he also has a decent clean voice, but his keyboard work is exceptional, elevating the band music to a truly professional sounding level.
Guitars are also top notch, well crafted lead work, some imaginative riffing, it all has Nightwish written all over it, but the band is one of the few that actually get away with the similarities and still manage to create a very enjoyable album.
My only biff with this album is sound related, its mostly OK, but the vocals are severally under produced, both the male and female vocals come off us a bit blurred at times, it isn’t band enough to impair the pleasure of hearing Dunja's fantastic voice, but it could've been better.
The band also uses some death metal growls, their use in Within The Mirror's title track is quite good, it gives another facet to the band's music and some needed aggression, but the truth is that all the band needs is their fine orchestral playing and Dunja's vocals.
A few things should be done for the band; some money should be put into the production, into the booklet, and certainly a better band photo inside, but with that taken care of by some serious label support- we might be looking at the next Nightwish.
Alon Miasnikov
