Band:	Benighted Soul
Album:	Anesidora
Style:	Symphonic metal
Release date:	2008
A review by:	Bas

01. Medea's Anger
02. Fairytale
03. Prince Of Shades
04. Bucephalus
05. Blood Of Achilles [Instrumental]
06. Anesidora

Symphonic metal really does seem to be flourishing in France. I have the impression that many of the bands I get to hear from this country play a symphonic type of music. Benighted Soul is one of them. Apparently they've been around since a couple of years now, however I hadn't heard of them before.

Anesidora is a symphonic power metal album with female vocals and a lot of orchestration, very much in the vein of Nightwish. Too much perhaps, and that is the main problem I have with this EP. It's all good and well to make music similar to other bands, out of obvious reasons not every single band in the universe can sound unique. But I have difficulties to detect a soul of its own in Benighted Soul. I'm not saying that this is bad music, not at all! But the thing is that Anesidora doesn't have anything whatsoever that I haven't heard before.

The symphonic arrangements are very dominant, which makes the whole music sound very epic. There are some male vocals which are also quite reminiscent of those of Marco Hietala, however they are somewhat more aggressive and deeper. As for the female vocals, they are done by a pretty brunette lady who has quite some singing skills.

In general a lack of talent really isn't what makes this band lacking. All of the musicians, and especially the vocalist, do a really good job. But in the song-writing area the band really doesn't appeal to me. This is the kind of CD you listen to and when you're done you can't remember any part of it. You know that you've just heard it, but there's nothing you can recall about the music. That plus the fact that there is absolutely nothing new on it makes the whole EP totally forgettable for me, even though I've listened to it numerous times.

As a sidenote, 'Blood Of Achilles', an instrumental track, would be perfect for a soundtrack to a movie. It's seriously one of the most epic instrumentals I've ever heard.