Time for a Gothenburg alert, although not perhaps quite what you are expecting. It has to be said that it is really refreshing to see a write up from a label and a band using the dreaded ‘pop’ word as one descriptor of their music along with metal and rock. I am not going to knock this surprisingly honest approach in the slightest, I mean the last Lacuna Coil album was so rooted in pop music it beggared belief but you can’t imagine their label actually admitting it. One Without are a female fronted metal band too and as far as comparisons to the aforementioned Italians are concerned similarities end there. What we have are 12 tracks of catchy and melodic metal, rock, pop, gothic music that are on the whole very good and enjoyable.
Starting off with one of the best we have ‘Farewell’ which should theoretically come at the end. There is a moody vibe in the musicianship here and even a few licks that remind a bit of Katatonia. It is instantly evident that singer Catrin Feymark has a strong voice with a fair bit of range behind it, perhaps meaning that backing growls are not really necessary but as they are not overplayed here we can live with them. There is a real modern sheen to ‘Your Game’ and it’s a song that could go all scene friendly in the wrong hands with emo singing adding a sugar coated touch, luckily with this woman at the helm the song sparkles and works nicely meaning I can leave the skip button alone.
The pop side of thing is more a nod towards the melody side of the songs, on the whole they are pretty bombastic and pace is driving enough for any forward thinking metal-head to enjoy. Perhaps you could see numbers like ‘Separation’ hitting the fringes of mainstream accessibility as far as the tune is concerned but the roars on this one would have you thinking again. Having said that occasional ballad such as ‘Withered Serenade’ is on hand and could have Granny nodding her head and rocking her chair in motion along with it.
For a debut album this is pretty good. I have to say it could have lost a few songs and come in at 45 minutes or so to and on closer ‘Chained’ you realise that the few tracks before were not as strong and this album could have done with being a bit more compact. Also although I saw similarities to bands like Brave and Liquid Sky this isn’t quite in the same ball park and on the whole although I have enjoyed this it hasn’t blown me away. Still perhaps they might do so in the future and it’s very much early days at the moment, making this a good all round effort.
http://www.myspace.com/onewithoutsweden
