My Black Light - Human maze 3.5/5
Reviewed: 4-1-11
Tracklist:
1. Energy core
2. Being human
3. Detriny
4. The abstainer
5. Noise for sale
6. Inner world
7. Deadline
8. A lie for eternity
9. Ideal
10. Guiding light
11. Ti sento
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Out of Italy, My Black Light is a new band ready to make their mark on the metal world with their self-released full-length debut 'Human maze'. As you can probably tell from the cover-artwork, the band is female fronted (by Monica Primo) and as you also may have guessed, their style is symphonic/gothic metal, but there are moments of power metal too. For quick comparisons - they sit somewhere in the group that contains Within Temptation, Xandria, HB, Sengir, Elis, Delain, Yotangor, Revamp, Asrai, Krypteria, Lunatica, Katra, Delight, and so on. I must say however, that this is not an overly-poppy or extra-commercial CD, which is the case with some of the CDs from these mentioned comparisons.
While Monica is not of the operatic type, her clean and somewhat typical voice (for this style) does reach the higher range on occasion. She fits the band perfectly, and there are also some occasional male vocals (both clean and rough) that compliment Monica's vocals, without coming close to dominating them. So we get a solid vocal performance with this CD, and it's not always that we can say that.
This CD is actually quite melodic, with well above average songwriting, especially considering that it's only their debut. Though the highlight is probably track 4 "The abstainer" (it's very memorable), all of the songs are great and there are even some terrific guitar solos that grab my attention in some of the songs. Another aspect that stands out is the amount of speed, as there are some faster (occasionally aggressive) moments on this CD and power metal really is part of the band's style. Actually, I can't stress enough how much the addition of speed has kept me spinning this CD as much as I have.
With all of this said, it's obvious that I must admit this CD has been a nice surprise. I consider this band to be very promising, and already better than some of the bands mentioned earlier in the review as comparisons. We all know there are plenty of CDs out there in this same style (female fronted symphonic/gothic metal), but honestly, I think this one is worth grabbing.
CLINT
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