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Forever Slave - Alices Inferno review



Reviewer:
7.8

40 users:
7.45
Band: Forever Slave
Album: Alices Inferno
Release date: September 2005


01. Lunatic Asylum
02. Reminiscences
03. In The Forest
04. Equilibrium
05. The Circles Of Tenebra
06. Dreams And Dust
07. Aquelarre
08. Across The Mirror
09. Tristeza
10. The Letter

The triumphant return of Lady Angellyca at Metal Storm

We love Lady Angellyca here at Metal Storm and we have history with her, maybe not me directly, but Jeff. And if Jeff's girlfriend is reading this, please don't be jealous, it was a professional relationship! Angellyca graced the cover art of the Volume IV of our beloved Compilation with some of her magnificent artwork (she's a graphic artist), Jeff also reviewed the Demo of her band, Forever Slave.

Is been a while now and now the Gothic Metal outfit of the Lady in question has a record contract with Armageddon Music from Germany, and this is their debut album, entitled "Alice's Inferno".
The band plays Symphonic Gothic Metal, with female/rough vocals (more known as beauty n' the best vocals) although the female vocals have a lot of more presence than the rough ones. The band relies in keyboards to give atmosphere to the music and even counts with a violin player to give the "extra" touch.

I must say I wasn't too excited about this release, simply because we get a lot of bands with this descriptions, but we always give a try to any band that comes along the way.
So how this turned out to be? Rather pleasant I must say, while I wasn't expecting too much from the band, I got much more than I bargained for.

Songs are energetic but the vocals of lady Angellyca are rather "fragile", her soprano signing style is less mellow than the usual, nevertheless I found the vocals a little weak for my taste, I could use some energetic vocals to go with the music, luckily there's the rough vocals to save the day.

Songs are backed up with keyboards, although it could have been so much better to have a string quartet instead of the keyboard, because it can sound cold and distant at times, luckily again the violin covers that area sometimes.

The album has a rather interesting concept, is the story of a teenager who was sent to a lunatic asylum after having been accused of killing her parents, because she was found with a bloody knife in her hands next to the dead bodies. In the lunatic Asylum Alice don't remember anything about that anymore, that's why she must travel to her own hell to find out the truth.

My favorite songs are "Reminiscent" and "Across The Mirror" although the rest of the songs have equal quality also. Despite minor errors I found this rather enjoyable, so I might give it a try once in a while, but I definitively would like to hear with more proper instrumentation.

Written by Undercraft | 24.11.2005




Comments

Comments: 2   [ 1 ignored ]   Visited by: 70 users
14.11.2006 - 22:20
Rating: 6
Jason W.
Razorbliss
An enjoyable release if you are a fan of this type of music. I agree with the review that the vocals need a bit more depth, but for a debut, they suit the music well enough. There is some genuine guitar solos, the violin and the synth show that the band is much more than just a female vocal lead, which is often a problem with this kind of music. The songs end up sounding a bit on the same side if you listen to the CD from beginning to end, but as I said earlier, if you like this kind of music, you won't mind it much. The band is heavy enough and never sappy or cheesy - a real plus for me. Each song is as strong as the next, and I hope for a second release with a development in the vocals and diversity in songwriting. Forever Slave could be a favorite of mine someday. A really accurate review Undercraft!
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"After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." - Aldous Huxley
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19.09.2010 - 03:41
Lovecraft
Account deleted
The album is okay. Nothing special, though
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