Band:	Beto Vázquez Infinity
Album:	Darkmind
Style:	Symphonic metal
Release date:	November 13, 2008
A review by:	Bas

01. From Your Heart
02. Kingdom Of Liberty
03. Magical Moments Of Time
04. Mystic
05. Darkmind
06. For Time Runs In My Veins
07. Sleeping In The Shadows
08. Chronicles Of A World Without Gods
09. Close Your Eyes
10. Follow The Moonlight
11. Memories Of The Reinglow
12. The Tunnel Of The Souls [bonus] [Spanish version]

The previous Infinity albums featured guests like Tarja Turunen (ex-Nightwish), Candice Night (Blackmore's Night) and Fabio Lione (Rhapsody Of Fire) among others on the first, Antti Railio (Celesty), Aldo Lonobile (Secret Sphere) Sonia Pineault (Forgotten Tales) and more on the second. Now Beto Vazquez is back, featuring a guest list that isn't less impressive than on the previous CDs. I suppose that:

Olaf Thorson, Vision Divine
Sandra Schleret, Elis
Marcela Bovio, Stream Of Passion
Eddy Antonini and Kiara, Skylark
Manda Ophuis and H J, Nemesea
Pablo G. Soler

and a few more should be enough to whet the interest of most melodic metal lovers. I too was very interested when I first heard of the project of course. So the big question is; does Darkmind live up to its guest list?

The music style should be fairly obvious. This is of course female-fronted symphonic power metal, reminiscent of a mix of a lot of bands already mentioned in this review. Most of the songs are very mellow and the album has a lot of ballads, still the CD as a whole is very multi-layered. Production-wise this release is superb. At exactly the right times it feels slightly unpolished and on the parts where it should be, it's as clean as the glasses in every washing powder commercial.

I should say that in regards to the list of guest musicians mr. Vazquez could have done something better. It's also unfortunate that a couple of the guests sound very similar, the same thing is true for the three not-guest vocalists the band has. Also some more really powerful songs wouldn't have done the album any bad. Still Darkmind is a very good album. It might not sink in on the very first listen, but after a few spins, especially in quiet and peaceful moments, fans of melodic metal should be able to greatly appreciate it.