Benighted Soul – Start From Scratch (2011)
Benighted Soul describe their music somewhere between progressive and symphonic metal. They say they have found their own path through metal. They claim to go from pop/rock all the way to heavy metal, supported by powerful riffs and rich orchestrations. I, as usual, disagree. Of course it would be ideal and great to have found your own path of metal after making music for nine years. They have also produced three demos and two albums, so yes, having your own style by then would be awesome.
This band are talking about their own path when everything I hear is so predictable. Things that have been done many times before, blindly copied without making any effort to make it their own. The lack of variety in instruments and effects simply give the effect you think you have already heard a song three times, while it has been a different song all the times. The choral pieces in this album are beautiful and have a very rich and full sound. They have a fine atmosphere and they are well finished off, the production itself is not quite so bad at all. The sound is overall quite full and pleasant, until Géraldine opens up her mouth and tries to create a powerful sound. The moment she does so, her voice sounds shrill and downright horrible. Besides the fact her vocals are not really powerful, she is simply not pleasant to listen to.
All in all, this seems like a very ordinary thing, and I think it is. They should break loose of all the predictable gothic things in their metal, they should add more atmosphere to their music and Geraldine needs to work on the sharpness in her voice. Apart from that, I am guessing this band will be just fine.
Rating: 58/100
01. Broken Icons 06:02
02. Edge of Insanity 08:07
03. Wrong Reflection 03:49
04. Falling in Sin 07:04
05. Ticking Time Bomb 06:39
06. Stranger Me 05:33
07. The Seventh Cage 04:58
08. Evergreen 05:59
09. Start from Scratch 07:13
10. My So Called Friend 06:02
11. No Warning Signs? 07:54
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Benighted Soul – Start From Scratch (2011)