Gwyllion - The Edge Of All I Know (2009) - Solid but not outstanding enough to survive - 73% (21/12/10)

I lately discovered this female fronted Symphonic Metal band from Belgium because I read about it in a forum. The main difference between this group and the average Nightwish or Within Temptation clone is that singer Ann van Rooy has a lot of power in her voice and doesn't try to sing as high pitched as many. I would comapre her voice to Magaly Luyten or maybe Floor Jansen. The other interesting factor about the group is that they are mostly heavier and more down to earth than many groups of the genre. There are some keyboards and some very great folk influences from time to time but basically the band doesn't forget to rock in a quite straight and yet sometimes progressive way.

My favourite songs on the record are the slightly folk influenced and rhythm orientated "The night awakens" as well as the very diversified "Entwined" that also has some folk approaches. Musically, the band does some progressive epics like "Roots of reality" that take their power out of the tranquilty while they also play some faster and rather modern songs like "Closure" or the typical and somehow boring piano ballads like "Angelheart" of the genre.

They all do this in a very solid way and are easy to appreciate but the problem is that they offer nothing new to a very recent and very popular genre. They mostly sound like "After Forever" minus electronical influences or like a softer version of "Beautiful Sin" plus some folk influences. I know that the band is actually on hold but if they will ever come back, they should focus on their forces that are the folk influences and the slightly progressive touch of their songs as well as the talent of their singer and they could get distinguished out of the masses. But by now, this solid record doesn't have enough efforts to stand its ground and peak out of the masses.