Right, so it's been a while since I made a new band thread. This here is mainly inspired by the fact that I am the only one after the forum was reset to mention this band in a single post, which was "top 25 albums of 2007". I am talking about Fusion, which is the only album I've heard, even though the few songs I've heard of the demo are also of decent quality.
Now to explain why I would add this album there and also to explain what this album and the band is about.

First, the band is from France. The leader is a woman named Aurélie Potin Suau, also known as Eilera, who does the programming, vocals and also writes the music, with the help of the second fulltime member of the band, Loïc Tézénas. Also, there has been host of guest musicians present in the songs, most of them from Finland, all of them but an ex-Apocalyptica cello player fully unknown to me.

The music, as I understand can be categorized as gothic metal. It has all the generic elements: guitars, keys, violin and female vocals. Now, why is this different from others? Why is it worth your time? Simply because it's done "slightly" differently. There are no male growls, you won't hear operatic female vocals, and even though the melodies seem commercial as with any other new-age gothic metal act, they seem more serious than a lot of the gothic metal bands.

To rest on the instruments for a bit, the guitars are obviously simplistic. There isn't a time when the "band" tries to show technicality in this regard. Same with the drums and keyboards and violin. The violin plays more during the choruses and sadly follows the same melody over the course of the album, but being a fan of simplistic enjoyable music (funeral doom), I don't have anything against this.The bass, as I'm accustomed to, isn't distinguishable (meaning I can't understand whether it's there or not, but I definitely like how the album sounds) . Whether it's a good thing or not, is not for me to decide, but for you, as the listeners.

As far as the lyrics go, they are what you'd expect from a gothic metal band, so no mad originality here.

From Fusion, there aren't any specific songs to recommend, because I like them as a whole, but the title track is very decent, and 100% of the 9 people I've sent the song to haven't been able to say a single bad thing about it. Only 4 of them listen to metal daily though, so be vary of this statistic.

Their myspace has 4 out of 10 songs from Fusion, so it should give a fairly good idea on what the album sounds like.

Also, they have one song from their first full length 'Facettes' (Ambiguity) which was released in 2003 as a full version on this website.

Furthermore, their homepage has 30 second sound clips courtesy of last.fm (or the other way round) from both full length, and also the EP. While not as helpful as full songs, I still got a bit interested in their first release as well.

Cant decide

I just try it it was good, interesting but it was to much gothic, its not my cup f tea, but its interesting still, so its eb unfair try decide here

Well, it's nice that you gave them a shot at least!

Bringing this thread back on the first page, because I still think they're worth a listen. One thing about the music itself that I've paid attention to more lately, is the drums. Usually, with "gothic" bands, I'm used to the same stupid repetitive drumming beat that seems to be popular in every damn music genre (no doubt you know which I mean). But in Eilera's case, whether I'm overprotective of them, or really there isn't a single instance of that beat occurring. I do remember one song, where I was reminded of it, but it didn't bother me there.

Edited the first post a bit, to provide two more links: first to one full song, other to their homepage with short samples in the music section.

Her voice kinda reminds me of Björk. It's disturbing and very beautiful at the same time. For me, the voice is what make this band different from the others.

Just checked this thread again, and noticed that I never ended up posting in it, even though I voted in the poll awhile back... I had received some sort of compilation (a Spinefarm one?) with the "Fusion" song on it and loved it the first time I heard it - a few years back I'm guessing it was. The video was also particularly enjoyable when I finally realized there was one as well . The rest of the CD is to me not as exciting as that song, but I think it's because for me I was hoping for more 'metal' oriented songs when in fact it's more diverse. I picked up the CD @Hellfest last year in France, and do enjoy the disc very much, especially the vocals, but still, "Fusion" is the real standout for me

I've been listening to the album more lately. The song that sort of annoys me is 'Healing Process'. I just cannot enjoy that song. I don't know if it's the way the lyrics are built up vocally, or if it's the words themselves, but it doesn't feel right. It might be arguable that the song differentiates from the "core" system developed for this album, but if that's the case, then I don't like it. I don't actually mind that in general the songs are fairly similar to each other. The differences more than make up for sharing the same violin at most places. Just that 'Healing Process'... It is really the only song from the 'Fusion' album that I don't recommend.

Fusion as a song really is a bit of a standout track. Keep Your Heaven is though, upon further listening, my favourite track from the album. It had steadily climbed for weeks, until I finally realized that the song really is better than Fusion and the others.

If there are still people that haven't tried this band, then really - this is one of the better non-generic type of gothic metal bands out there. If anyone wishes to prove me wrong, please do, just so I would find out how high in the clouds I am.

Just found this group, and am greatly enjoying. Her voice is -very- versatile and interesting, she reminds me at times of Bjork or Emiliana Torrini, and then at other times of Dolores O'Riordan (the Cranberries).

Listened to first to songs...music is quite good, singer sounds annoying and awful...