Stream Of Passion has everything it needs to stand out amongst many other symphonic metal bands. The band had an illustrious founding, always has featured a competent line-up, as well as many promising collaborators. Singer Marcela Bovio has an amazing voice filled with passion and soul that differs from the exchangeable high pitched operatic vocals of many colleagues, and she is fluent in both English and Spanish. Despite all these positive factors, Stream Of Passion has never fully sold me in the past because it sounded too faceless. It is always nice to listen to the band’s albums, but they’re unfortunately quickly exchangeable and forgettable.

In my opinion, the band’s fourth output, A War Of Our Own, is maybe one of Stream Of Passion’s best records due to a crystal clear production and a few decent progressive elements. Once again, much of the music still sounds exchangeable and is of a “good” quality at best. Despite rather short and consistent songs and an excellent vocalist, only a few tracks manage to grab my attention, as I find most songs are neither catchy nor impressive in any way.

The first track that really stands out on A War Of Our Own is the eerie, reduced ballad “For You”, which gets its life from an amazing vocal performance, a haunting piano composition, and melancholic violins. The heavier and modern “Exile” is my favorite song on the album. It mixes Spanish and English lyrics, and has an almost tango-infused hypnotizing feeling without forgetting about fresh and heavy riffs. The chorus is charming and dramatic, and reminds me slightly of Evanescence in a positive way. This is a courageous track that finally stands out and capitalizes upon the band’s strengths. The following, more progressive “Delirio” is completely sung in Spanish. It opens with relaxed piano and violin melodies before modern and discordant riffs kick in to create an intriguing contrast. This is finally some outstanding song writing that opens up the more you listen to it. Above everything once again soar the powerful vocals of Marcela Bovio, who really is one of the best singers in the symphonic metal genre. The middle part of this record clearly includes the most adventurous songwriting.

We have to wait until the end of the record to listen to some equally great material. The closing “Out Of The Darkness” comes around with refreshingly jazzy progressive tones, dominated by bass guitar and piano work that meet dark riffs here and there that evoke a destructive atmosphere. The mixture of laid back passages and darker ones, as well as fierce guitar work is surprisingly great in the album’s closer. It’s worth the time to check out the bonus track on the limited edition as well. It’s a mystery to me why “The Distance Between Us” didn’t make it onto the regular edition, because it is probably the most accessible song on the entire record. This track has interesting lyrics combined with catchy melodies and hooks. The middle section features a few chants and the record’s most emotional guitar solo as well. If you think about purchasing this record, it’s worth spending a few dollars more for this excellent bonus track.

Once again, it’s very tough to judge Stream Of Passion in the end. A War Of Our Own is maybe the best record from the band to date. The middle of the work is incredibly strong, the album closer is great, and the bonus track proves that the band can also write grounded and accessible material. Otherwise, the band truly shines in the more experimental tracks with tango, progressive rock, and jazz elements. The problem is that the first half of the album in particular is rather unspectacular and tame. Marcela Bovio’s vocals are always excellent, but the song writing is sometimes still too exchangeable, and the songs often have nothing that might grab your attention. Many tracks sound enjoyable while you’re listening to them, but a few minutes later you will have already forgotten about them. I would say that the band is on a good path to finally improving its song writing, though. Time will tell if the talented sextet from the Netherlands might make it to the top league of the female-fronted symphonic metal scene. A War Of Our Own is all right, but it can’t compete with the new releases from Xandria and Epica. In the end, Stream Of Passion delivers a good, fairly average record, with a few pearls for symphonic and progressive metal fans.

Originally written for Black Wind Metal

Subway to Sally is a so-called German medieval metal band that has found its niche with a mixture of dark and romantic lyrics, sinister industrial metal riffs, and a touch of Baroque music carried by strong violin play. The occasional use of bagpipes, flutes, hurdy gurdies, lutes, mandolins, and shawms adds some unique variety to the pioneering band that has been around since 1991. The reasons that I’ve always liked this band a little less than its more joyous colleagues, In Extremo and Saltatio Mortis, were primarily the singer’s nosey and squeaking vocals, the sinister and sometimes quite depressive or suicidal topics, and the unbalanced use of too much industrial metal not enough folk elements for my taste. The last few of the band’s albums have been a little bit weaker than the its earlier material, and I admit that I didn’t expect much from the new album, Mitgift – Mördergeschichten. In fact, If it weren’t for the intriguing concept around this album, I wouldn’t have checked it out at all.

For its latest album, Subway To Sally took some inspiration from different murder cases of the last five centuries and wrote eight songs (or nine, on the limited edition) about them, plus an instrumental interlude, as well as an atmospheric album opener and closer. The booklet of the limited edition (which includes a DVD) comes with some interesting background information about the murder cases: a desperate murderer forgot what he had done; an innocent woman met the wrong man in the wrong place and at the wrong time; a bad older sister got jealous of her younger and more beautiful sibling and pushed her into the ocean, and so on. These stories are nothing new, but they are presented in a very atmospheric and emotional manner of storytelling. Mitgift really turns out to be the best Subway To Sally album so far for me, and is on the same level as or maybe even slightly above the quality of the last strong releases by In Extremo and Saltatio Mortis.

After a few shallow records, the band decided to change a few things musically. Subway To Sally employs more neo-Baroque musical parts than ever before and the violin play, the occasional female choirs, and the use of Latin lyrics in the opener remind me of the band’s earliest efforts. The vocals sound more realized and melodic than before, and are actually enjoyable throughout the entire record. The band also uses a few modern electronic sounds and a few dubstep passages in their songs. To my big surprise, these new sections perfectly contrast the classically inspired music and the crunchy guitar riffs. The first single, “Schwarze Seide”, mixes all three elements in an unusual way. The song might sound confusing at first, but its fresh originality makes it a strong grower. This track is already very good, but there are still so many better songs here.

“Für immer” is a slow, dark tale with a grand and almost relaxing chorus. My first personal highlight is the enchanting “Grausame Schwester” with its female choirs, the beautiful folk melodies, the majestic chorus, and the vibrating use of dubstep elements in the verses. This song perfectly represents the entire album. The more aggressive and chaotic industrial metal track “Warte, Warte” surprises with elegant symphonic elements in the chorus and sounds like a courageous mixture of Krypteria and Samsas Traum. “Dein Kapitän” employs a similar strategy and convinces with a melancholic chorus. “Arme Ellen Schmitt” includes minimal oriental folk elements, a few classical passages, and smooth vocals that create a fascinating mixture. This track is probably also one of the catchiest on the entire album, and should have its place in future live sets. My favorite track here is probably the emotional and epic “In Kaltem Eisen” because of a particularly good vocal performance and what is maybe the most interesting story on this release. “Haus aus Schmerz” is a close second favorite. It comes around with more pleasant oriental folk sounds in the vein of Arkan, nightmarish dubstep sound effects in the key of Skrillex, and a truly sinister atmosphere that is not a far call from The Vision Bleak. Only the uninspired chorus keeps this track from being the best on the album.

This conceptual record grabs my attention from the first seconds of “Ad Mortem Festinamus” and never lets go until the nightmarish closer “Coda”. The album works very well as an entertaining whole, but the single songs are also incredibly strong. Regular and occasional fans alike should purchase this release because the six men and one woman are back for good. If you didn’t know this band before, I would say that Mitgift is a great effort to start your journey with. If you care for atmospheric folk or symphonic metal music and don’t mind a few industrial riffs and dubstep elements, this discovery will hopefully impress you as much as it has stunned me.

Originally written for Black Wind Metal

Do you remember Within Temptation? Yes, I’m talking about that Dutch band that played passionate gothic metal on early releases like Enter and The Dance, and then switched to magical and inspired symphonic metal on later albums like Mother Earth, The Silent Force? The band began to go downhill on the more radio-friendly, Americanized record The Heart Of Everything. Genre fans surely remember hits like “Restless”, “The Other Half (Of Me)”, “Mother Earth”, “Ice Queen”, “Stand My Ground”, “Angels”, “The Howling”, and “Our Solemn Hour”. Even the acoustic duet with Chris Jones on “Utopia” was still a good song, but a sign that the band was venturing more and more into an exchangeable, mainstream direction. On the boring and powerless conceptual output The Unforgiving, the band sounded like a silly copy of ABBA rather than of Therion. Within Temptation went on to release a couple of cover songs entitled The Q-Music Sessions, where they obviously covered their new heroes. But these aren’t Enigma, Enya, Kate Bush, or Loreena McKennitt anymore. Their new sound has nothing to do with Edenbridge, Epica, Nightwish, or Sirenia either. Maybe they are still comparable to modern Lacuna Coil, but that’s not a good reference at all. No, the artists and bands that were covered during these sessions are Bruno Mars, David Guetta, Enrique Iglesias, and One Republic.

Die-hard fans might claim that I’m a closed-minded metalhead now, and that the band simply headed for new terrain. I (obviously) don’t mind bands experimenting with new sounds at all. In fact, almost everything would have been fine with me. If Within Temptation was about to release a world music album with different folk influences? Brilliant, that would grab my interest. If Within Temptation decided to do a cover record of classical music and opera pieces? Fine, I’m listening to that kind of music, too. Within Temptation records a progressive rock album? Why not, I adore that genre. But I don’t adore David Guetta, Enrique Iglesias, and One Republic who, make dull, easily imitable mainstream pop music. I’m not an enemy of pop: Japanese pop music is quite fascinating to me. I like some of the classics as well, such as ABBA, Madonna, and Michael Jackson. I even enjoy some modern American pop, but the mainstream music Within Temptation is playing now is just mooning and faceless.

At least the vocals sound juvenile and fresh. Many of these new pop songs definitely have catchy hooks. They stay on your mind even if you don’t want them to. It’s like a dog’s poo under your boots, if you get what I mean. Two or three tracks are actually quite solid on here, and I grant them that, but that’s it.

The down-tuned guitars, the artificially flavored symphonic elements, the repetitive hooks, and the weird choice of guest artists are the nails in the band’s creative coffin. The most convincing guest musician is actually rapper Xzibit. He makes a pretty average song called “And We Run” a little bit exciting. On the other hand, his angry parts don’t fit with the graciously high-pitched princess vocals. Try to imagine a mixture of Dr. Alban and Kate Bush and you might have an appropriate idea. The duet with Tarja Turunen entitled “Paradise (What About Us?)” is solid but highly predictable as well. Killswitch Engage’s Howard Jones and a certain Dave Pirner are just plain awful, but maybe it’s because they perform on truly boring tracks. My guess is that all these guest musicians are just there to give us a chance to distinguish all the exchangeable tracks. It didn’t really work out, even though the record only includes ten tiny tracks and less than fifty minutes of playing time after more than three years of waiting.

The band included one metal-oriented track on the record. “Silver Moonlight”‘s riffs try desperately hard to sound heavy, but they just feel worn-out. The orchestral elements feel by-the-way and cheesy as well. The track even includes a short guitar solo, and a catchy chorus is supported by a few male growls. It seems that the band is really trying hard to show us that they haven’t forgotten where they came from, and this song does indeed remind me of the band’s early days. It’s not a bad track, and might even be the best and most diverse on this release, but it just doesn’t sound credible anymore. It feels as if Rihanna had invited Morbid Angel to perform with her on one track, or as if Céline Dion collaborated with Anonymus. Imagine a mixture of Helene Fischer and Crematory…I think you’ve got the idea by now.

In the end, it’s all quite simple. If you liked the band’s last outputs in The Unforgiving and The Q-Music Sessions, you will also dig this record. If you are a fan of contemporary Lacuna Coil, you will also adore this. If you liked the band’s earlier works, initial creativity, and metal albums, you will probably hate this. The last Eminem record was honestly more metal than this. That’s the sad truth. Really.

Originally written for Black Wind Metal

Raise the curtains for X-Mantra, a heavy and thrash metal band with some minor but very decent death metal influences. The five musicians hail from Kathmandu, Nepal, and form one of the country’s first and most important genre acts since their creation back in 2000. The band has released three metal records entitledCrying For Peace, Kurshi, and the self-titled. In 2007, the band released some sort of a side project under their banner called “Madhyantar”, where they invited several guest singers to perform with them. The intriguing aspect about the project was that the invited Indian and Nepalese artists had hip-hop, new age, or pop backgrounds, like female singers Abhaya Subba and Ciney Gurung, or rappers Subash and PunK-AJ and Rajiv.

The conditions to record music in Nepal have become more and more expensive, even for famous bands, and that’s why it took the band five years to come around with Pralaya 2012. Later, the band signed with the British label King Slam Records in order to get some more international attention and promotion for their latest output.

The band’s fifth album is a thrash and groove album driven by hard riffs and a few melodic mid- to up-tempo guitar solos as heard in the diversified “Badala”, the apocalyptic and concept driven “2012”, or in the faster and quite pitiless banger “Chaya”. On the other side, we also have the mid-tempo “Bartaman”, which mixes elements of a dark rock ballad with straighter heavy metal parts. All band members and even the bassist show off their talent in this song. This exciting closer really stands out on the album because of its unusual style.

The vivid vocals that vary between an emotional thrash metal delivery, and a few death metal-affected passages. This singer truly has some charisma and talent. The final result isn’t a far call from a mixture of OverKill and Slayer, and recalls even elements from early Metallica apart from the harsher vocals.

While the record seemed to be monotonous at first listen, I enjoyed it more and more towards the end. Thanks to some rewarding patience, I’ve really ended up enjoying this release. The solid musicianship and the energy behind the honest performance make this band stand out from many others of its kind.

Those who feel like trying out some new-school thrash metal coming from an exotic, metal-developing country can easily do so by watching the cool video clip for “2012” or by directly trying out the entire explosive mixture on the band’s bandcamp site.

Originally written for Black Wind Metal

Four years after its original foundation was cast, the progressive folk metal band Týr truly came to life with its first release How Far To Asgaard. Instead of the more power metal-influenced records that would follow, the band’s first strike is clearly influenced by doom. The eight songs, plus a Faroese poem that works as a hidden track, are characterized by epic-feeling song writing at a slower, mid-tempo pace. The songs have an average length of around seven minutes, which can get quite long after a while.

All songs feature a fairly dark atmosphere that is carried by somewhat simplistic but efficient instrumental work, and especially by the band’s first singer Pól Arni Holm. His performance is haunting, and he has a very melodic voice that creates well needed hooks in an otherwise somewhat inaccessible record. The opener “Hail To The Hammer” is such an example. Overall, the tone of the vocals is epic and longing. They slightly remind me of Pasi Koskinen, who once was involved in Amorphis. On the other side, a melodic version of Jari Mäenpää (Ensiferum/Wintersun) also comes to my mind. At some points, these vocals might also please those who prefer the calmer, down to earth passages of Blind Guardian’s Hansi Kürsch or the young James Hetfield of Metallica fame. This all means that Holm is quite diversified and does a decent job, but somewhat lacks his own identity. Sadly, this record is his only one with the band. I would have liked to hear more from him and see if he had been able to develop his own distinct style.

The negative part of How Far To Asgaard lies in its overlong song structures and its lack of diversity towards the end. The instrumental work is technically decent and atmospherically convincing, but it all becomes a little bland after a while. Many tracks have unnecessary lengths that lead to dull repetition (as in “God Of War” for example).

The highlights of this record can be found primarily in the first half. First of all, there is the quite catchy opener, “Hail To The Hammer”. Then follows the strong doom hymn “Excavation” that convinces with a few slow melodic guitar solos and a very vivid vocal performance. “The Rune” is slightly faster and moves more towards heavy metal stylings with vintage twin guitar parts and a strong old school NWOBHM feeling. The transcending and calm parts of the song call to mind psychedelic and progressive rock influences, and show the potpourri of great ideas that the Faroese already have on their side. The following “Ten Wild Dogs” is even more experimental, but goes a little too far. The track feels like a psychedelic drug trip, and is probably the weirdest song the band has written to date. That’s why it’s so addicting, and a pleasure to rediscover this song over and over again, even though it’s quite a rough ride each time.

In the end, the most famous metal band of the Faroe Islands is already showing its talent on this debut. Even though some songs are overlong or hard to digest, there is no filler material on here. The record even turns out to be quite a grower after a while, even if the second half of the record can’t keep up with the first three songs. Fans of folk or power metal ought to be careful and give this release several spins before purchasing it. However, this album should rather please progressive doom fans that appreciate atmospheric music with an old school touch. If I had to describe this release in one sentence, I would do so as follows: A dark, doom metal version of Metallica with psychedelic moments.

Originally written for Black Wind Metal