Are you searching for something different? For sure, Hungary’s DHARMA [ dharmaofficial] is what’s suit you. This band, with their second album propose something that it “straddles the line between Gothic Rock and Electronic Metal”. Obviously that is something that “requires a certain amount of open minded-ness” and few listens too but this is not a reason for giving up, as our reviewer Tony states at the end : “I like “Dharmageddon” more and more with each listen […] and “Dharmageddon” is a bit of a change from most of today’s female fronted metal”.

(via Dharma – “Dharmageddon” (2012) « Femme Metal Webzine)

Although they recently gone through a line up change with violinist Milena Kluz taking the lead over the former vocalists Natalia Sikora, Poland’s Symphonic Metal outfitAt the Lakedebut album “Maya” offers a nice formula that includes in their sound “Gothic, Folk and Celtic music”. Even if “it has been done before “Maya” it all sounds very natural and not gimmicky or forced”. Do you fancy for some good symphonic metal? 

(via At the Lake – “Mäyä” (2012) « Femme Metal Webzine)

From the mighty Russian steppes comes Excalibur [ Экскалибур] with their second album “Душа” (“Dusha” – “Soul”). This unknown Russian metal band propose in its platter Symphonic Power Metal at its best. What you an expect, as Vard states, are “a vast dramatic sound full of intricate orchestration; heavy guitars, bass and drumming; excellent vocals (provided by Valeria Nikiforova); plenty of catchy melodies; and of course a few mellow ballad-type songs as well”. Althought the evident linguist barrier (‘cause we would like to stress that everything in sung in Russian) “this album will provide as good an example” and also it “demonstrates to everyone just how good and in how healthy a state Russian Symphonic Power Metal currently is”. 

(via Экскалибур [Excalibur] – “Душа” [“Dusha” - “Soul”] (2013) « Femme Metal Webzine)

As you can see from the cover album, it’s a “Space / Sci-fi / Sci-fi fantasy” concept album released by Russian Extreme Melodic Metal bandSunwalter. For “SETI Evidence” our reviewer sets as references some masterpieces such as “Nexus Polaris” era The Kovenant and “Beneath an Alien Sky” era Mindcrime for its “themes and soundscapes”. Vard has only high praises for its vocalists that are mutually shared between Alexio Sunwalter and Natalia Sibilskaya [singer also in Pesante], in partucular about Alexio he says : “Alexio has no shortage of skill and versatility at his disposal – from clean vocals to spoken words, and from deep Death Metal growls to Black Metal shrieks”. Instead about Natalia, he’s happy in a manner that she hasn’t used “her operatic style” and she has focused on her “awesome” “”rock” voice”. Although its musical variety that in some ways can be an obstacle [“It is a style and a formula that made the album difficult to listen to at first”] , our mighty reviewer achieved this mission and he “strongly recommend this album to every single Terran who appreciates good Metal!”. 

(via Sunwalter – “SETI Evidence” (2013) « Femme Metal Webzine)

As Matteo states “Transbohem classify themselves as World Prog Metal, which is a pretty ambitious definition”. Yes, you have heard right, this Franch band mix in their sound “metal, with frequents changes of tempo, rhythm and atmosphere, passing from prog metal to arabian music”. “This album is very challenging to listen to” but “keeps always your attention at a high level”. Also the particularity of this release is their vocalist Claire that “doesn’t actually “sings” but she pretty much adds to the general atmosphere with her vocal abilities, creating a very suggestive result”. In conclusion, our editor has high hopes for this band but they “have to define and develop their sound”. Besides this remark, he ends saying that Transbohêm “are going to be one of the most interesting bands in the years to come”.

(via Transbohêm – “Déserts” (2012) « Femme Metal Webzine)

(via Italian Symphonic Metal band PURSING THE END confirmed for Rommelrock 2013 « Femme Metal Webzine)

[@solisia] Let’s know better the new singer of Italian Symphonic Progressive Metal bandSOLISIA Elie Syrelia. In this interview, Matteo talks with Elie about their second album “UniverSeason” - it that was out on 2012 via Scarlet Records - and about this release she states : ““Univereasons” is like a son”. Elie has met Andrea [Arcangeli - Solisia and DGM bassist] “in 2010 I met Andrea in Belgium during the PPM Fest […] we became good friends and in 2011(and) he told me about Solisia”. Also Elie is a vocal coach and her mission with her students is : “is “teach from the heart””. 

(via Elie Syrelia – Solisia « Femme Metal Webzine)

UK Progressive Metal Master To-Mera on 2012 via its own imprint Illusionary Records has published the third album “Exile”, so we took the challenge to ask some question to the founder and lead vocalist Julia Kiss (now in MacLean). When enquired about the most challenging task during the recording session, Julia confesses : “We recorded all the vocals ourselves, so it was very different.[…]But it’s also easy to obsess about tiny details and take 5x as long as necessary!”. About the split with Candlelight Records, the Hungarian singer said that “It was the result of a number of factors really, mainly the fact that we just wanted to do our own thing musically – without the pressure of a sales focused entity behind us”. Instead candidly Julia admits that won’t be touring for this album, ‘cause “we recently lost our drummer Paul” and due to the fact that “the band members just got other priorities, other projects to focus on”. As for To-Mera’s future nothing is clear considering what Julia declared in the following words : “I think we also feel that we’ve said what we wanted to say with this album and perhaps it’s time to take a break “.

(via Julie Kiss – To-Mera « Femme Metal Webzine)

Coming from an “artistic” family as Anne states : “my mom was a theater major in college and a director and my dad has written a novel”, her project Upon Wings debuts with the EP “Afterlife” that features the “guest vocalist Brett Hestla (ex-Creed, Dark New Day), master Grammy-nominated mixing engineer Glenn Brown (Kid Rock‘s recording engineer) and guitar work and production from Canadian-based Kevin Jardine”. “When it comes to writing songs and creating a theme with the lyrics, I have to write what is true to me and whatever I’m experiencing at the time”, so Anne it’s a true artist that tries to fullfil her dreams [and maybe he achieved this mission]. 

(via Anne Autumn Erickson – Upon Wings « Femme Metal Webzine)

The only thing that you can be sure of with Ukrainian Alternative Progressive metal band Marvel is that you never get bored ‘cause “anything they release will be totally different to anything they have released before”. For being such a quite young band they “play by their own rules” and “never limited themselves to any one style”. We have previously talked about this band with the EP review of “Reduce My Pain” and the following single “Naiti Sebya” and the main difference that our reviewer Vard Aman can recognize is that “Olga Skripova‘s vocals have been somewhat “tamed” in comparison to the rest of the band so she is now less of a driving force and more of a riding /guiding force” and in comparison to the previous releases “Black Stone” EP features “complex driving rhythms with subtle experimentation”. If we want to find a flaw to this release is about its shortness as complains Vard “however, could perhaps have benefited from an extra song or two” but this is not a good reason to not check out this band. 

(via Marvel – “Black Stone” EP (2013) « Femme Metal Webzine)