Ahaem is the Russian name for this band, which is the name you’ll read on the logo on the front cover – all well and good but quite confusing when you’re trying to search for info on the band and nothing comes up. Apparently there’s a shortage of female fronted metal bands in Russia, and Andem claim to be the saviours of the genre which given my knowledge of female fronted Russian metal I can’t really comment on. If I’m being entirely truthful I really did not like this album upon first few listens and initially struck me as a very dull release, however I’m kind of glad I didn’t settle with giving this a bad review after 2 listens as it surprisingly grew on me.
The album begins with a short intro where some crepuscular keyboard sounds give a nice sense of wonder, leading up to ‘Swords Keeper’ which comes racing out with storming drums and a keyboard line that brings to mind Kamelot’s ‘Centre Of The Universe.’ The vocals do take the most getting used to – at times they are totally over the top and, sung in native Russian, strike me as being incredibly Eurovision. That’s not to say that Yuliana Savchenko has a bad voice – she sounds powerful and ballsy and yet at times is unafraid to switch on the femininity, but they took me some getting used to. On ‘Midnight Guest’ the guitars are speedy and certainly kick out some voltage, while the drums do a good job of keeping up. I like the symphonic edge to this one, with the violins and a Sonata Arctica-esque keyboard solo that is coated with cheese. This is definitely one to suit the power/speed metal fan.
I do like the dreaminess of ‘Righteous Men Of Light’ with its soft melody that lingers for a few moments, and ‘Prayer’ again is flowing and gentle and it’s nice to contrast the heavier more metallic sound with some gentler passages that prevent things from being too 2-dimensional. I find the vocals that begin ‘Goths Assault Rome’ are rather enchanting and there’s a pretty feminine melody here that interjects the faster chorus with its storming rhythms. In places this gives off an Eastern vibe, which continues into ‘Songs Of Sand Storms’ which envelops you with its beguiling belly-dance flavour.
It took me a while to get into this, but once I’d familiarised myself with the album I found it to be quite pleasant. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but fans of melodic power metal should find something to like here.
http://www.myspace.com/andemmusic
