Band:	C-Rom
Album:	The Winding Star
Style:	Electronic, Gothic metal
Website:	http://www.c-rom.fr/
Release date:	2007
A review by:	Jeff

01. Purple Cloak
02. My Madness
03. Locked Inside
04. Doubt
05. Falling
06. From The River's Chorus
07. Not So Far Away
08. The Lady Of The Lake
09. W.A.H
10. Blured Sight
11. Even If
12. Another Sky

C-Rom is a young original and atypical band from the north of France. Atypical and original because they play a nice mix of Electro and Gothic Metal. A bit like with the two electronic albums of Theatre Of Tragedy (but a lot more of classy and without the mistakes that the Norwegian combo did on its two albums), C-Rom plays its own original music which should be ok for the fans of Gothic like for the ones who like Industrial sounds.

At the first listening, I'm sure that you'll ask to yourself if you're listening to an album of Metal or not. That's right, "The Winding Star" is a surprising album because C-Rom has created its own personal sound and musical universe. No drums here, only some electronic beats with in addition some Percussions and of course a lot of Keyboards lines. It's really atmospheric not too slow actually and the "angelic" voice of Christelle is even really disturbing and hypnotic. Of course, you have real heavy Metal riffs too but "The Winding Star" is really dark and clearly oriented toward the Gothic direction. If you like Indus and dark Gothic music, I think that "The Winding Star" will be a good album for you.

However, all is not perfect on "The Winding Star". If the songs are good and surprising in general, the voice of Christelle can be a bit monotonous sometime and some of the songs can become a bit boring with time. But well, as you already know it's more like an atmospheric album than a heavy Indus one so, just be prepared because while you'll listen to "The Winding Star", you'll be in front of a album which can be aggressive on a side but which can quickly become slow and peaceful too. It's a bit unequal and "The Winding Star" can lose a bit of rhythm sometime.

The production of "The Winding Star" is really good and as I said at the beginning of this review C-Rom, really, is an original band. It's fresh and not so common and that's right, the basic metalheads who cannot stand Electronic sounds will probably not like this release but if you're a bit open minded and like Gothic and Industrial music, I'm sure that you'll have a nice surprise. Try this and you'll see that C-Rom is a really promising band which has its own personal sound and musical style.