THE GIFT OF AWARENESS

A few months ago I was asked to write a review about this new band from Germany. I didn´t know anything about their former members neither of their previous gothic/death metal background. when I first heard the first track, Sailors In The Sky, they reminded me of british combo Touchstone: good melodic hard rock with a female singer. But upon listening a little more it was obvious that they had a much stronger prog leaning and certain german folk "accent" or "flavor", if you will, within their music. Those elements together gave them a quite unique personality. Good start!

I was surprised when I read the credits that they were not really a band, but a duo: Dennis Matzat (drums) and Sebastian Rudolph (Keyboards, vocals) plus some guests. Their best asset is singer Lisa-Marie Rothe, a terrific vocalist with a great voice and stunning delivering. There are a few male vocals but they are totally eclipsed by Rothe´s. The songs in general are long, with shifting moods and tempo, but aside from the occasional mellotron, they are not all that symphonic as it may sound. Some parts do have a few hard edged guitars that throw them close to the prog metal category, but they are good enough songwriters and arrangers to avoid most cliches with ease. The production is also brilliant.

Overall I found this CD to be quite enjoyable and very well performed. All the songs are nice and some parts are even brilliant. However, they have not achieved a real "band" sound, i.e., the CD sounds a bit disjoined on parts, lacking a cohesive whole. But those are minor flaws since it is just their first effort and I´m sure that if they follow this pattern they will mature their obvious talent as composers and maybe give us a more cohesive work in near future.

Conclusion: an interesting mix of power, gothic and symphonic rock with terrific female singer. A very promising act that I´m looking forward to hear their next release.

Rating: somewhere 3.5 and 4 stars.