Demo 2001

The Swedish band Amaran send us their 4 track demo CD for reviewing purpose. The first thing that strikes (beside the poor packaging but well after all it's a demo) is the production. Quite impressive for a demo and I wished all demos would have such a quality. Amaran plays a Heavy Gothic Metal with female vocals. The guitars uses a lot of distortion, in order to achieve powerful riffs while the female vocals (not enough in front in the mix) will calm the overall power of their music. Guitar wise there are some very interesting moments and the songs, although quite short are interesting in their songwriting. I believe this band have what it takes to deliver an excellent and very professional metal, but for that they need to improve one thing, a main one : the vocals. Although the singer have a nice voice, her vocals are absolutely not at the same level of the rest of the music. She doesn't sing bad, don't get me wrong, but I'm convinced she needs to improve. A band that have an interesting sound and who tries to mix heavy aggressive music with a almost pop/gothic way of singing. The contrast is quite interesting, although very disconcerting during first listens (but isn't that always the case with new stuff ?). Their unique sound is probably because of the different background of the musicians. But I have the impression that its the kind of band you love or hate. A band who might very well have a bright future, but only time will tell... keep up the good work.