I gave this band a try because they had a catchy name and I'm a sucker for female vocalists. Neither is ever a good reason to check out a metal band. Luckily, what I found wasn't outright appalling, but it was certainly not inspiring.
This is this first American melodic death band I've heard with a female vocalist, and that's really the only original thing this band is doing for American melodic death (as I'm sure we all know, it's been done outside of America already in other mediocre melodic death bands - Arch Enemy, that all girl band from Brazil...). The girl can growl medium-decently from the start, and doesn't get worse, but it doesn't get any more interesting. She's unexceptional. As for the music, it's the usual and expected brand of American melodic death metal. There's a few In Flames-isms and a pinch of At the Gates - influences that serve to accentuate that this band has fallen deep into the big 'same-old' hole. 'Guiding the North Star', from everything I can tell, is unabashed Dark Tranquillity worship.
There are a few pretty cool moments scattered about, when the band manages to hit the right notes - I like that riff at 1:20 in Obituary, and 'The Static Masses' threatens to be really badass in a some places.
Hold on a second - 'Letter to my Abuser' just came on, and... isn't this the exact same song as 'Elder Misanthropy'?
In a sentence: Angela Gossow met The Black Dahlia Murder.
(Originally written by me for Metal Archives.)
