Coming from Germany, this is the second full length release of this band. The first thing that strikes me is the very good production, with very powerful guitars. Enter the sounds of DARK FACE. The main music can be described as an unholy union of early Florida Death Metal like Malevolent Creation, some more early Doom / Death like early The Gathering, and with some early Dark Tranquillity sound. They also use keyboards, and a lot to be more precise. Then in the info I got it states that this is also Goth influenced. I was about to turn my head all around and puke green. But the very powerful guitars were strong enough to stop that exorcism from being performed. Also there are two types of main vocals, yeah two. Ones is the Death / Black Metal (male) vocals which are quite good, although nothing spectacular. But then it comes the female vocals. They sound a lot in the early Nightwish style… for what I have heard of Nightwish that’s it… yeah, more operatic than just normal female vocals. This gives the final recipe stated before to add the now famous Finish band as a part of the sounds. Both vocal styles are used through the whole album, it at times takes a while to get used. We can call this a melodic Death / Black with operatic / Power Metal touches to it, with many rhythm changes. A really powerful song can be found in ‘Fearscape Forest’ with a monster main riff. There are just a few things that are just not clicking after few listening. The female vocals are all the same, I cannot hear to any variation at all, any part where she sings sounds the same. Also sometimes they use way too much melody, and it breaks a song that is aiming for more brutal destination, not to mention that they use both vocals whether they fit or not. As a whole this might be enjoyable for the more open minded Metallers, it will definitely be loved by Nightwish fans (if there is any reading this site more consecrated to the dark side, he) and can only be good by making those “fans” to get interested in more extreme Metal. www.medusarecords.net