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Review:
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Nera is the seductive co-lead singer with the Polish
black metal outfit Darzamat, or should I say sole lead singer
as that guy's screaming hardly qualifies as singing, more
being tortured by a red hot poker. Anyway, this, her first
solo album, is thankfully a totally different kettle of
fish, atmospheric gothic metal in the same mould as Lacuna
Coil, modern Gary Numan and Lahannya, but with her own distinctive
moody haunting sound. This is down to her deep rich awesome
voice that is melded into the equally deep rich awesome
production sound courtesy of Jaroslaw Toifel, good grief
does this perfect combination sound good. Jaroslaw has somehow
managed to soak everything in reverb and still keep it as
clear as a bell, really remarkable, it must be a total joy
for the band to be recorded so beautifully.*** I found it
quite mesmerising the way her voice is so strong, sonorous
and melodic as the music swells, soars and lulls driven
along by a throbbing groove, it all creates an almost hypnotic
quality to the music, heightened by the atmospheric effects.
Nera is living proof that you can be deeply soulful just
by tone and intonation without wailing your head off, and
the lyrics are also obviously deeply personal to her. Every
song is superb, including the terrific lead single 'Precious
Now' (video on Female Voices blog), the swaying beguiling
'Woman's Soul', the eastern inflected rocker 'Broken' with
it's raging riff, the rousing and conversely titled 'Disappointed'
with it's ethereal passage, and the driving far from lifeless
'Dormant'. Even her Garbage cover (that's Garbage the band,
I don't mean a rubbish version) 'The World is Not Enough'
fits seamlessly into the flow of the album.*** Rarely have
I heard an album sound this good, and when combined with
excellent song writing and a truly outstanding singer it
creates something rather special. Her website is http://www.neranature.pl/
, a deeply deep 9 out of 10.
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