MASQUERADE

I am neither a fan of overblown symphonic goth metal or it's leading band Nightwish. Actually, I cannot stand their Nightwish and their music. But Masquerade is an entirely different entity again.

The music is loosely based on the Phantom Of The Opera musical, I believe. This album's version of the well known song Phantom Of The Opera is superb and the best song on this album. But there is also a lot of other snacks here. The title track is around 30 minutes long and split into five parts. The longest being 10 minutes long. This is not a sparkling superb epic. But it is still rather good and I am not holding this song against them. This album trundles along in a mid pace with clear classical music leanings. It is still goth metal, though. But of the more light hearted sort.

Sandra Schleret's vocals is excellent throughout. Her vocals is rather understated and not as overstated and over the top as too many other female operatic vocalists. I have just learnt that she is still active in the scene (after the Dreams Of Sanity split in 2002) with her own website and even a fanclub. The rest of the instrumentation here is pretty generic goth metal and even metal. Chugging guitars and overstated synths. All the things I intensely dislike about goth metal.

But overall; this is a very good goth metal album. I am no fan of this genre. But this is an album also symphonic prog lovers will find highly enjoyable too. It is recommended.

3.25 stars

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