Band:	Chaostar
Album:	The Scarlet Queen
Style:	Ambient, Neoclassical darkwave
Release date:	2004
A review by:	Jeff

01. Birth Of A Vampire-Lullaby
02. The Scarlet Queen
03. Crimson Order
04. Embrace
05. I Am... The Assassin Of Gods
06. The Soul Of The Depths
07. Vampire Renegades
08. The Pleasure Dome
09. The Arab Merchant
10. Rex Mundi
11. Vampire's Illusions
12. When Death Dies

I'm sure that if you like classical music, gothic music and Opera, you already know "Chaostar", the Gothic/Opera project of Chris Antoniou of the Greek band "Sceptic Flesh". Their new album "The Scarlet Queen" will be release through the French Label Holy Records this summer.
I must advice you first, that this band is really special due to the fact that they play more classical music/opera than Metal. Yes it's definitely gothic but definitely not metal. But at the end this kind of album can be more than interesting.

This album is the 3rd one of the band, after two years of hard work of studio recording. If I must talk about one only thing with this new release I will talk about the greatness of this work, because believe me that this album is really uncommon.
This is a TRUE opera, really, it's hard to find albums with such arrangements and the music of "Chaostar" is really well done, really beautiful. I can say beautiful because the voice of their Soprano is really amazing and the violins and all the classical instruments sound just perfect in the production. There is a lot of dark ambiences in that album, this kind of stuff which can give you shivers. But at the end, "The Scarlet Queen" sounds more like a super production, something that you'll find in a big fantasy movie of Hollywood, than a true metal album. And well maybe that's the only problem for me. In fact if you like this kind of music or if at least you like true Gothic music, I'm quite sure that you'll find this album really amazing. If you are a fan of Music in general [like me in fact] you'll certainly be really surprise by the potential of the band and their musicians, and by the talent of writing of Chris Antoniou but maybe with time, this album could be a bit boring? And if you are only a fan of Metal and don't want to listen anything more well seriously no need to try this album because you could really be disappointed by it. And I remember a friend of mine who bough their 2nd album and was totally angry after the reviewers who all said that it was a masterpiece. It was a masterpiece, yes, but not for all, and the only problem maybe is that Chaostar do really amazing beautiful music but not something very easy of access. No more?
Anyway this album has a great sound with an excellent production and I can't find any big problems on it. As I say the only problem for Metal Heads is maybe the fact that it's just not metal.

By the way "The Scarlet Queen" is a great album of music and it show again the great potentiality of the master Chris Antoniou. If you don't really know what is a musician who knows how to write great songs, have a look on this album and you will understand.
For my part I say it again, if you like classical music in general, this album is for you but if you're not a fan of it? well maybe you could find something better for you, but you'll definitely miss something?