THE NEW KINGDOM

I was quite disappointed by this album: after listening to few samples, I thought I had found an original prog-metal band, but the whole LP ends up to be quite boring.

Venturia play a prog-metal with a strange pop influence. The most original thing, in my opinion, is the voice of the male singer, which is closer to pop-dark 80s music rather than the abused screaming of neo-Pavarotti which prog-metal is used to. Furthermore, the song-writing is a lot depending from pop easy-listening music. This is not a bad thing, because makes the band very original. Listen to The News Kingdom or Take me Down to understand what I say.

The album is beautifully executed, the players have an astonishing technique: the sound is extremely polished; this, together with the non-standard melodies they play, adds a very original sound the the whole ensemble. Marc's voice, as I said, is also original. But it's not very powerful and various, and ends up to be boring. Also, I don't understand why the female singer Lydie has so little space. A duet-based album would have been great.

The songs are not very different from each other, and the whole album seems quite lacking of surprises; it seems like some gears are missing. A more mature song-writing and execution would make this band go further. By now, they are still at a starting point.

In the end, an interesting debut by a good-potential band, but we are still waiting to see the great thing coming out. Let's wait and see. By now, we can entertain ourselves with a pearl: the track Words of Silence is worth 5 stars. Listen to believe.