Title: Volturna
Artist: Mandragora Scream
Genre: Gothic Metal, Industrial
Release Date: 20th November 2009
Label: Massacre Records
Album Review
MANDRAGORA SCREAM is a female fronted gothic metal band from Italy. It was founded in 1997 by Morgan Lacroix, whose amazing, rather powerful voice with its peculiar timbre became the distinctive feature of the formation. In 2001, the debut album ‘Fairy Tales from Hell’s Cave’ was released and as all songs on the CD were potential hits it brought the musicians the popularity they really deserved as newcomers. The following works were not so impressive but they definitely showed the direction MANDRAGORA SCREAM chose for further development. The new album ‘Volturna’ is intended to display the level the band has already achieved, or has it?
The CD as usual starts with a beautiful ambient intro, which make you think the other tracks may be even a way better. And there comes ‘I’m Going Alone’, a powerful, energetic, industrial song which in general produces a good impression despite the predominance of synthetic sound and strange experiments with the vocals. The next two compositions bring only disappointment because all the negative characteristics mentioned before increase. But actually the album is full of surprises and ‘Breaking Dawn’, ‘Killing Game’ and ‘Blindness’ prove it. The vocals on these songs charms and attracts almost at the very beginning and it perfectly combines with the music. ‘Breaking Dawn’ can be marked out for its interesting lyrics, smooth melody gradually getting heavier and even some looseness of the rhythm doesn’t seem a serious shortcoming.
‘Killing Game’ is just a vigorous well-done track when nothing can be added to the music to make it better. On ‘Blindness’, my favourite composition on the CD and the most atmospheric melancholic one, you finally realize that you listening to a gothic metal band. However, it’s easy to begin to doubt again as all the other songs are monotonous, flat, boring and the instruments almost disappear among artificial sounds. Two covers presented on the album are well-done and deserve one’s attention. The melodic ambient outro is also of interest and the CD, still containing a lot of ordinary, run-of-the-mill tracks, is worthy to listen to in order to enjoy those rare, and because of that even more impressive songs, which can be found on it. But of course, you need to look for them properly.
Tracklist
01. Lui - 2:18
02. I’m Goin’ Alone - 4:27
03. The Circus - 4:21
04. Deceiver - 3:39
05. Breakin’ Dawn - 3:36
06. Killin’ Game - 3:25
07. Blindness - 4:28
08. Farewell - 4:28
09. A Chance from Him - 3:29
10. The Callin’ from Isaiah - 4:35
11. Bang Bang (Cher Cover) - 3:14
12. The Seagull’s Creed - 3:42
13. Fade to Grey (Visage Cover) - 3:20
14. Nails - 5:34
15. Heartbound Eve - 5:22
Line-up
Morgan Lacroix - Vocals
Terry Horn - Guitar, Vocals, Keyboards, Programming
Furyo - Drums
Max Rivers - Bass
Website
http://www.mandragorascream.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/mandragora.scream
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 7
Sound: 7
Extras: -
Total: 7 / 10
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