A fast look at the album cover, and I knew something IS wrong. Metal, you see, is basically a sign of rebellion. Yes, Metal started as a somewhat doomed form of Rock / Blues music, but when it took definitive shape it was fueled with fire by Punk Rock. That is METAL. And yes, we are in a free world where abominations of crossdressing styles can be found around. Gothic Metal is one of those. Gothic Rock has a quite dark obscure vibe that some Metalheads can relate to. But then again when it all soon becomes love stories of people wandering around dressed like “elegant” vampires of some few centuries ago, we all know humanity is doomed. Yes, it is ok to wear leather clothes and armbands with spikes, even using slight eye-shadows and sound like a bad fast Punk band meets Rock’n’Roll. THAT is rebellion. But then doing some sort of music that reminds more of your everyday easy listening Rock band, which uses a lot more distortion than usual, and that also uses angelic voices versus monster vocals (the beauty and the beast thing) sound to me more like someone having a hard time deciding that they cannot be so soft, so they need heaviness, but not that much as they still need romance. Got it? DIATHRA is a band from Belarus, this is their third album and the only thing I can relate it is to that EVANESCENCE band just with the use of low growling vocals here and there. The rest is the same ultra-melodic, mid-tempo melancholic hard rocking metallic sound that they use to call Goth Metal. It is well recorded, with good production, competent musicians, and yes, a lovable looking female vocalist. And that’s about it. I truly think that the normal VFTDS reader (whatever that means) will avoid this and similar releases. This is the music that people that “kinda” like Metal but are more into Pop, will find good. www.facebook.com/pages/diathra-official/183490965141126, www.stygiancrypt.com