Metal Storm logo
Midwinter - The Glassy Waters review



Reviewer:
7.0

3 users:
5
Band: Midwinter
Album: The Glassy Waters
Website: http://www.midwinterworld.com
Release date: April 2007


01. Black Hole Attraction
02. Seed Of Pain
03. The Cripple
04. Illusion
05. One Day You'll Set In The Land Where You Belong
06. One In A Hole
07. The Silence Of Your Eyes
08. Sweet Child O'Mine
09. My Fury
10. Atmospherics

Let's be honest, the first album of Midwinter was a pure clone of Nightwish. It wasn't bad but suffered of the comparison with the confirmed bands of this trendy musical style. But it's different nowadays, the trend is dying and a lot of bands try to change a bit their sound to survive. Midwinter decided to change a bit too and it's not a bad thing because musically speaking it's really better and a lot more personal and original than on the previous album. That's a good thing?

"The Glassy Waters" is darker than the previous album, "Fountain of Youth" and if you already know this release, you'll clearly hear that the band add a lot of personality to their music since 2003. Without being perfect, "The Glassy Waters" is a lot more interesting (it doesn't sound like a copy anymore) than "Fountain Of Youth" especially in reason of the dark elements that we can find on the songs now like the little progressive touches that you can encounter sometime. It's still Melodic Power Metal but not so easy and commercial than the one on the previous album. I can tell you that Midwinter is growing, that's a fact, the band is more mature now and the musicians wrote a bunch of good pleasant songs.

However I have a big problem with this release? the singer. The performance of Mylène Genoux is more than average and really the performance of previous singer was better. A lot of girls want to sing like Tarja Turunen but they don't all have her voice and here, the voice of Mylène seems to be false and even a bit out of tune sometime especially when she tries to do high pitched vocals. It's problematic because this is the first thing that you'll hear when you'll listen to the album and it doesn't help the music. However, she is young and her voice is not terrible so it should be better with time but obviously she will have to work to improve her vocals.

With a really nice production signed one more time by Pierre-Emmanuel Pellison (ex Heavenly) with a lot of good new ideas and finally a music which is a lot more personal, Midwinter release a good new album. However, all is not perfect yet and the band will have to fix some problems if they really want to become a bit more famous. We don't have perfection here but good hopes? let's say that if should work if the band follows this road and still work to improve.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 6
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 6
Production: 8

Written by Jeff | 21.04.2007




Comments

Comments: 5   Visited by: 34 users
22.04.2007 - 06:24
Rating: 6
Susan
Smeghead
I gotta say though, this cover art is lovely. Pure, gloomy, soft, and lovely. Maybe I'll give the band a chance just based on that (even though bad vocals usually ruin it for me, I'll give her a chance)

Great review Jeff! You packed a lot of good info in, too.
----
"A life all mine
Is what I choose
At the end of my days"
--The Gathering "A Life All Mine" from Souvenirs
Loading...
22.04.2007 - 08:51
Lupas
Maximus
When ever Jeff wrote something about new Progressive, Melodic hard, or Symphonic new bands here, i always want to know them or even become a fan off them. I will surely take a look at this band. From the review that jeff wrote here and the cover ( i may describe it as a photo ) album , it seems that they are good.
----
"For what point has this life if you can't realise your dreams?" -- The Divine Comedy
Loading...
23.04.2007 - 16:14
Deadsoulman

Good thing if they changed a bit, because their first album was nothing but a Nightwish-wannabe crap. Unfortunately, if the vocals are bad, I won't give it a chance. Bad vocals are the one thing that can make me hate an album.
Loading...
01.05.2007 - 04:17
Rating: 6
Susan
Smeghead
Wow, Jeff you're so right, this band has come a LONG way. I finally got a chance to hear the older music (samples on their website) and a few of the newer songs on their myspace. The older stuff is pure Nightwish but it's not all because of the poorly recorded vocals; it's the keyboard that copies Tuomas' style and made me think of Nightwish right away.

The new songs are so much more professional and personal. Professionally recorded but also with a much higher standard of writing. The vocals don't sound like Tarja anymore and the keyboards don't sound like Tuomas.

I just ordered this album from their label and am excited to hear the entire thing. I love when bands grow and improve - look what wonderful things happen!!
----
"A life all mine
Is what I choose
At the end of my days"
--The Gathering "A Life All Mine" from Souvenirs
Loading...
06.04.2009 - 16:12
Rating: 7
Ag Fox
Angel No More
Whoever dragged the vote down to 3.5 I strongly disagree.
it's fair enough that the vocals are a tad bit off at times, but the music has quite a lot of personality over here and it sounds pretty good. I think it deserves a solid 7.
----
loves 小巫
Loading...

Hits total: 5214 | This month: 12