Review Summary: Fallenmania, Part 15
I’m starting to think that Fallenmania isn’t such a good name for this series, because it implies there is nothing to the artists featured here besides copying Evanescence, and more specifically, that they only copy the “Fallen” album. But today’s band is named after a song from Evanescence’s self-titled album, and they are clearly inspired by many pure symphonic metal bands as well. As far as Fallenmanics who lean more towards their symphonic metal side go, this band isn’t necessarily the most interesting, but they’re good enough.
“Follow the angels” is a pretty good opener, with its eerie piano intro that reminds me of “St John”, before turning into an explosion of keyboards, choirs and a simple but catchy riff. The guitar solo followed by choirs is also pretty good. The band’s resemblance to We Are the Fallen doesn’t stop at the song’s intro, due to the choirs and riffs, but also Micky Huijsmans’s voice, which sounds oddly similar to Carly Smithson’s at time, while at other moments, she sounds like Manda Ophuis.
“Away” is even more similar to early Nemesea, and even closer to symphonic metal, with its powerful riffs and keyboards, but also with Micky’s voice as a perfect soundalike to Manda, except slightly deeper. “Collide” is a fairly simple ballad, like on a lot of songs on Nemesea’s later albums, but again, Micky’s gloomy yet sweet singing saves it. Her singing gets deeper and more dramatic on “Colder”, with its melancholic piano and powerful chorus that feel very “St John”, but also a lot like the chorus of “Disappear”. Again, this band is clearly influenced by the self-titled album. I’d describe it as a mix of “Fallen”, “Tear the Word Down”, “Evanescence” and “Mana”.
Well, I’m not so sure about other tracks, but “Shadow’s Embrace” and its powerful, heavy, twisted riff, really has earned the comparison to “Mana”. So has “Dark Reflection”, with its heavy riff and sinister atmosphere and vocals. Micky sounds a lot like Manda on the chorus, but she sings the verses in a slightly deeper voice that, again, I’ll describe as a better version of Carly Smithson (on many of WATF’s songs, at least): less overwrought, not trying too much to sound like Amy Lee, more natural.
What about the other tracks? The album quickly devolves into a samey-sounding mass of symphonic metal tracks that either sound like Nemesea or We are the Fallen. They didn’t bore or annoy me, but I can’t really find anything new or interesting to say about them.
That’s my experience with this album as a whole. I did enjoy it, but I didn’t love it or get a particularly strong reaction to it. I’m not sure if I enjoyed it because it’s really good or simply because it reminds me of things I already sort of enjoy. Since I made so many comparisons to Nemesea and We are the Fallen, this album kind of feels like a copy of a copy. Of course, to look at it more positively, in terms of bands I enjoy because they remind me of someone else, End of the Dream is pretty good. Their album is mostly good, and it managed to create a better version of “Tear the World Down”. Even though it’s another band that is mostly known as an Evanescence imitator and kind of disappeared after their second album, they’re still pretty enjoyable.
