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Review:
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Ravenheart Dave did a review of the pre-mix of the
Dutch/German combo’s debut album a few months ago, but with
the album about to go global and a copy of the final version
safely stashed in the Ravenheart Towers Vault, he has asked
fellow consultant Doctor Phil for second opinion. The prognosis
is, ‘it’s dead Jim’….....only kidding! After the mighty
orchestral intro, ‘Endless Sacrifice’ reveals a hybrid of
Within Temptation’s ‘What Have You Done’, Nightwish’s ‘The
Poet and the Pendulum’ and Lacuna Coil’s ‘I Like It’, mega
powerful symphonic alt metal, with the divine Carie Van
Heden’s combining Sharon, Cristina and Anette into one very
attractive all purpose portable package. This opus is then
packed with 11 more almighty slabs of prime quality metal.
You get the raging more Nightwish’ish ‘Heaven Burns’, ‘Faces
(On Fire)’ and ‘Open The Gates’, symphonic metal anthems
like ‘Our Time’, ‘Tears of a Clown’ and ‘Weight of the World’
(which sounds like ‘Like A Prayer’ gone metal), while the
title track ‘Rise’ and ‘Willing to Believe’ start off gently
before really taking off. Returning to Within Temptation,
‘Open Your Eyes’ is a massive ‘Frozen’ esque ballad and
‘In Silence’ reminds me of ‘Hand of Sorrow’. Awesome lead
song ‘I’m Alive’ has a touch of the Streams of Passion about
it, its video (available for your viewing pleasure on the
Female Voices Blog) begs the question, are the forests of
Europe packed full of gothic babes running around in basques?
I will have to find out, purely in the pursuit of science
of course. The thundering production is premier league with
enough bottom end to disintegrate mountains, while the musicianship
is simply second to none. It can get a little OTT at times,
less can be more, a simple gentle piece in the middle to
give your ears a rest would have been nice. This is a band
that ticks all the right boxes, they have the looks, sound,
songs and commercial potential to appeal to all fans of
Within Temptation, Nightwish and Lacuna Coil, if they don’t
break big there’s no justice in the world. It will be unleashed
on the 5th of November, so expect fireworks, this album
should go like a rocket. Their Myspace for all the low down
and updates is http://www.myspace.com/ansoticca
. All I can say Doctor Dave is that it more than merits
a mighty 9.5 out of 10.
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