INFOS : webzine@femmemetalwebzine.net
Webzine dedicated to the metal band fronted by girls. We also like ambient,darkwave,rock & electronic music.
INFOS : webzine@femmemetalwebzine.net
Webzine dedicated to the metal band fronted by girls. We also like ambient,darkwave,rock & electronic music.
Label : Brennus Music
Review by Tony Cannella
France’s Symphonic Power Metal maestros Wildpath return with their 3rd round of inspired, classical tinged symphony laced metal with “Underneath”. While “Nyx Secrets” and “Non Omnis Moriar” were both solid in their own right, “Underneath” has the potential to land Wildpath in the upper echelon of symphonic metal. The orchestral intro “Seeds of a Dream” segues into the powerful, up-tempo, melodicism of “Unearthed”. This song has a great big chorus featuring a choir that really adds a lot to the song. Right away it is apparent that Wildpath has something cool to offer. Next up is “Dive” which starts off orchestral before breaking into some serious speed riffing and the strong operatic vocals of Marjolaine Bernard come in. The next song “Reviver” is a bit of a change of pace from the other material and has a bit of a jazzy vibe, showing that Wildpath are not bound by restrictions. Other highlights include: “The Craft”, “Anchored”, “Buried Moon”, “Frozen” and the 7-minute instrumental “Underneath”. The whole “Underneath” album takes the listener on a surreal journey whilst playing with different nuances, tempos and styles, yet also managing to produce a coherent metal masterpiece. Disc 2 features orchestral versions of “Underneath”, similar to what Nightwish did on “Dark Passion Play”. These are interesting, alternate versions of some already great music. Wildpath has continued to grow and progress from album-to-album and “Underneath” is no exception. Far be it for me to say that this is their best album, since everyone will have their own opinions on the matter, but this just may be. Of course comparisons are sure to be made to Nightwish (particularly the “Century Child” and “Once” eras), and there are some similarities, but Wildpath continues to break out of the mold and walk their own… um, path.
Rating - 90/100
Tracklist
CD 1
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Independent Release
Review by Tony Cannella
From Paris, France, the band Elyose was formed around 2009. After releasing a 6-song EP the band began work on their debut. “Théogyne” is the fruits of their labor. Elyose combines metal with eloctronica, industrial, progressive and classical to produce a top notch debut with “Théogyne”. “Théogyne” features 12-songs and almost 50-minutes worth of some fine metal with various influences shown by Elyose. The opening “Intro” is a pretty cool classical piece that segues into the excellent opener “Le Liberateur”. Elyose comes out of the gates strong and they are led by the strong, powerhouse vocals of Justine Daaé who has a diverse singing voice. She does excellent on the operatic stuff, but is also quite good when the song requires that she rein things in and the operatic style is not required as much. In addition to Justine, Elyose features excellent musicians all the way around who can play any style you want – the vocals and the musicianship complement each other so well, and the chemistry is just perfect. The electronic edge that introduces the next song “Overload” has a bit of a latter day Atrocity vibe to it. The majority of the lyrics are sung in French and some other highlights include: “Théogyne”, “L’Orientale”, “Incandescence” and “Derive”. There has been a lot of buzz on the internet with regards to Elyose, and after listening to “Théogyne” it is easy to see why. While “Théogyne” is undoubtedly metal, Elyose also does a great job in incorporating other musical ingredients to create an excellent debut. This is a thoroughly enjoyable listen throughout.
Rating - 95/100
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Label : Red Rivet Records
Review by Tony Cannella
Hailing from France, the Symphonic Folk Metal band Niflheim formed around 2003 under the name Potatoes (seriously?), after changing their name to the better and more metal sounding Niflheim the band released a demo in 2006. In 2008 they released their debut full-length called “Once Upon a Cow” (again, seriously?). Now the band has returned with their newest piece of Symphonic Folk mayhem called “Personae”. The first thing that hit me is the fact that violinist Clara Danchin has a significant role within the band as the instrument is prominently featured throughout the duration of “Personae”. The power riffing of the opening number “Rock the Harem” gets things started and the song also features brief moments of extreme male vocals, but the majority of the singing goes to Aurore Gauthier. To be honest her voice does not strike me as anything out-of-this-world, but that is not to say that she is not a good singer. She is and she fits in perfectly within the frame work of Niflheim. The next track – and my favorite – is the ultra melodic “Holy Mushroom”, which starts off with a huge Running Wild-esque guitar riff before settling into a beautifully melodic mid-tempo metal groove. Of course ever present once again are the violins. “Deep” is next and has a bit of a 70s rock feel to it and shows the band is capable of some diversity. Moving along, “Birth of a Succubus” is a huge sounding song and has an epic feel to it. Other highlights include: “Spirits”, “The 13th Warrior” and “Blacksmith”. If you have a problem with violins as a main instrument in metal, than you may want to bypass this one. Fortunately the violins do not sacrifice any of the metal-ness on “Personae”, to the contrary this is pure metal and Niflheim are potent metal band.
Rating - 75/100
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Label : Alien Productions
Review by Luisa Mercier
From France, another little masterpiece of gothic-doom has landed on my desk. Evolvent’s “Spiritual Confession” was released back in 2008 and soon it obtained a very good response from media, they even released a video for the title-track in 2009. On the present album, the female singer is Céline de Kerliviou, but in the meanwhile Johanna Manto replaced her. “The Canticle of the Shade” which opens the EP is a painful hymn of agony: the guitars flow with their doomish pace while keyboards and synth paint a gloomy landscape. On top of them, male aggressive vocals entertwine with sweet, angelic female vocals. Strings, keyboards and the usual tuned-down guitars introduce “Engraved on the Tomb”. Towards the half Céline appears and the track clearly recalled me Draconian early releases and their majestic, solemn atmosphere. Definitely more doom than gothic is “My Mystic Storm” where Céline amazes us all with a magnificent solo perfotmance towards the end of the track. Perfect song for grey, gloomy wheather outside. The title-track is quite short, but really moving. Relying more on a neoclassical style, it is a sort of interlude in which Céline sings in a very operatic way. Fascinating and enchanting, really. Last track is a 15-minutes song, “The March of Death”, goes back to gothic-doom. It ranges from more metal to more atmospheric moments, but I have to say that there is not a great variety, even though being so long. The piano outro is sweet and calming. Really, a treasure most doomsters don’t want to lose!
Rating - 75/100
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Label : Invencis Limited Records
Review By Tony Cannella
“II” is the title of the newly released second CD from Moscow born - and now - France based singer Ayin Aleph. Their first release, “I” saw the light-of-day in early 2008 and it was a unique slice of metal that - quite truthfully - was hard to define or categorize. Good luck finding a genre in which to put this band in and their second album - also released in 2008, is just as difficult to categorize. Musically, I guess there is a little bit of everything thrown in from Classical to Opera, Rock and more, all combined with the beautiful, poetic lyrics and vocals of Ayin Aleph herself. 18-tracks and a playing time of 49-minutes are what you will find on “II”. The songs are all piano driven and the vocals of Ayin Aleph are quite versatile and operatic. Among the 18-tracks, many are short musical or choir interludes that serves as a bridge from one song to the next. The music and lyrics on “II” are darkly poetic and possesses a beauty that transcends your basic metal and rock music. Tracks, in particular that really stood out where, “My Bloody Marriage”, “I Came”, “Aleph”, “Grey Ashes”, and “Es Muss Sein”. Ayin Aleph will no doubt be an acquired taste for some, but you really have to admire the fact that she/they set no boundaries or limitations for themselves. One thing is for certain, I have not heard another band quite like Ayin Aleph, and I doubt I ever will. An excellent second release from this very talented musician.
Rating - 78/100
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Label : Abstraktsens Productions
Review By Tony Cannella
The style of the French duo known as Life’s Decay is difficult to put a finger on. They play an eclectic mix of Dark Wave, Ambient, with one or two other influences thrown in to create an interesting sound. The band is made up of two members: Alea is the vocalist and Lykwasst does everything else. In listening to their new Cd “Dysrieuses” it is difficult to believe that there are only two members involved, but that is exactly the case. In researching this band, I was very surprised to learn that they have been in existence since 2003 and “Dysrieuses” is actually Life’s Decay’s sixth full-length release. Talk about being under the radar. The 12-songs and 45-minutes worth of music on “Dysrieuses” have a very avant-garde feel to them and I am not sure if I have ever heard a band/project such as them before. The majority of the lyrics (which are also written by Alea) are sung in French and the band incorporate some non traditional metal instruments such as accordian and trumpet, which adds to the different feeling you get on this CD. I was really interested in the melancholic nature of some of the songs, such as: “Viversie” (my favorite track), “Eabelia” and “Ambrause”.Life’s Decay are a band will be impossible to nail to one genre or one sub-genre. Even if you are not necessarily a fan of music such as this, you still have to give them their due. “Dysrieuses” can be a challenging CD to listen to at times, but this band is multi-talented and multi-faceted and if given the chance “Dysrieuses” is a Cd that can quite possibly grow on the listener.
Rating - 75/100
Tracklist
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Independent Release
Review by Tony Cannella
From Paris, France comes Interria. The band features two female members Jenni Signorino on vocals and keyboardist Julie Hénau. The rest of the band line-up is as follows: Xavier Dafonte (Guitar/ Sounds), Stef Montiel (Guitar), Fabien Calmon (Bass) and Franck Metayer (Drums). They have already released a demo (in 2006) and an EP called “Digital” in 2008. Their full-length debut is entitled “Les Corps Impatients” and I have to say that I was quite pleasantly surprised after hearing it for the first time. Now, after having the chance to listen a few times, I am all the more impressed with this band. The majority (if not all) of the lyrics are sung in the bands native French language and that proves to be a non factor to us non-French speaking people. The songs and the material are quite strong throughout the 11-track 39-minute opus. Describing the band can be somewhat difficult, since they incorporate a wide range of influences, but they definitely lean a little towards industrial/electronic overtones, but the songs are quite listenable and still have a heavy basis to them.The opening track “Ø” is a 1-minute intro track, using various electronic sounds and segues into the opening track “Nouvelle Ere”. It is easy to see (or hear) after a few moments of listening to this song that there is a definite accessibility factor with Interria. This is a good lead track and a song that is a good intro to this very talented French act. “Mindustrial” is next and it begins with a biting riff and the vocals of Jenni Signorino joins in. She has a nice, very like-able quality to her voice. She just delivers the lines with power and conviction and she is everything you could want in a lead singer. The rest of the band makes quite a cohesive unit as well. This is definitely a song that I could see giving the band a wide appeal. The next track “Nemorkia” is just a loud and fast punk rock type of songs, with crashing drums and basic rhythms. Jenni aggressively spits out the lyrics with rapid fire precision. “Voodoo” slows things down a little bit as the band shows they can be quite diversified. This is another song that I feel can have a tremendous amount of commercial appeal. The hooks and the melodies (pretty much throughout the whole album) are undeniable and infectious. “[m]road”, “I-Code” and “Evasion” are some more shining examples of the consistency and viability of Interria.There is a lot to like about Interria. You don’t necessarily have to be a fan of industrial or electronic music. Those styles do not overwhelm anything. The songs are quite good actually and have a real shot at propelling the band to impressive heights.
Rating - 80/100
Tracklist
Line Up
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Independent Release
Review by Tony Cannella
Asylum Pyre are a progressive/power Metal band from France. They include the female operatic vocals of Carole Alcantara and the male vocals of Johann Cadot who also plays Guitar. With their debut “Natural Instinct?”, Asylum Pyre look to enter the increasingly crowded Female fronted Power Metal field. Is it a successful first attempt? Mostly, yes. “Natural Instinct?” begins with “Taken Away To The Asylum” and it is a good way to start things. You get a taste of both the male and female vocals. The male vocals provided by Johann Cadot are deep in tone giving it a Gothic type feel to it and of course Carole’s style is operatic. “…Asylum” is a great lead-in for the next track “The Asylum Pyre” which is really more of an up-tempo number that features some more give-and-take between the two vocal styles. I have always been partial to long, epic type numbers, as long as they are interesting and Asylum Pyre have included a great one with the 11-minute “Different Sides, Same Thoughts”, which is definitely my favorite song here, that is followed by another highlight with the 8-minute “Jester of the Power”.“Natural Instinct?” is completed by “When We Are Wolves” which was taken from Asylum Pyre’s 2008 demo. There are more great moments, like: “Laughing with the Stars”, “Don’t Waste It” and “Love Ecstasy”. “Laughing with the Stars” in particular has a great melody to it and it is another favorite.A good first release from this talented French band. “Natural Instinct?” is a strong effort that showcases the bands talent and the strength of the songs. I like operatic female vocals as much as the next guy, sometimes they can be overdone though, but that is not the case with Asylum Pyre. Carole Alcantara is really an excellent talent, and her voice compliments the songs perfectly. Each song has it’s own atmosphere and vibe going for it and for that reason Asylum Pyre are a band that is worthy of attention.
Rating - 85/100
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Independent Release
Review by Lithium
Rating - 80/100
Tracklist
Line Up
Links
MySpace * ReverbNation * Facebook * Twitter * Site
