Artist: Radiance
Title: And the Night Comes Down
Type: Album
Label: Self Released
Flicking through a newspaper last month, I was surprised to find a review of Download festival, and a favourable one at that. It basically stated that heavy metal is the opera of the working classes; full of pomp and spectacle with the performance in question being Iron Maiden. It’s understandable then, that metal and opera can mix incredibly well and has been done to death by the likes of Therion, Nightwish, Haggard…the list could go on.
It seems the girlies in particular cannot resist a good warble which is all well and good when you consider the amount of quality bands that have emerged from the trend of mixing classical elements with heavy sounds. Unfortunately, it’s not always so great, and if And The Night Comes Down really was the opera of the working men and women then there’d be trouble as I think this would hardly motivate even the hardest of grafters to drag themselves out of bed and prepare for the daily toil ahead. I guess many look to metal (and most music, for that matter) for a kind of escapism, but what you’re more likely to find here is the aural equivalent of a building site; messy, shambolic and ultimately hard work. I really wanted to like this and to enjoy the histrionic vocal stylings of Karin Baldanza but as much as they sound good on paper, they just don’t sit well with the music. The vocals veer between a shaky attempt at classic heavy metal singing and over the top operatics that waver so much it’s embarrassing.
It’s not all bad and ‘Moon on the Mirror’ shows some promise with its galloping Maidenisms while ‘Lady Blackness’ is in places as heavy as a ton of bricks about to drop before they hit the ground and scatter all over the shop. After these opening two tracks, the standards really do drop and frankly if I could recall one single riff or melody then I’d expect a medal even after the countless hours I seem to have spent listening to this. ‘Inferno’ is interminably dull; why every band thinks it’s their right to attempt a ballad I will never know, but unless you have the skills to perform an absolute belter it should be left off; otherwise it just highlights the existing cracks in your sound even further. ‘Fire’ is more upbeat but certainly does nothing to ignite mine. ‘Inspiration’ is a truly ironic title for a track here as this whole album is anything but inspired. I really hate to be so scathing (don’t laugh!), especially with such young and fragile acts, but I would be doing a massive disservice here to pretend this is anything other than atrocious. Avoid.
http://www.myspace.com/radiancemetalband
Luci Herbert
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