Review Summary: Fallenmania, part 14
Here’s a question for you: what would be the best Fallenmaniac album? It’s not easy to answer, because it depends on criteria like actual musical skill, my personal enjoyment of the album, whether or not the album makes a credible successor to Fallen by imitating it well but also having enough personality of its own. Based on that particular combination of criteria, “Mana”, “Flyleaf” and “Bloodangel’s Cry” would be likely contenders, but another album makes a pretty strong case: Markize’s “Tranparence”. This one stands out not by being the most original or impressive, but by simply being very well-made. These are 15 very pretty Fallen-inspired songs. And that is enough to make this album enjoyable.
Like the first French album on this list, this one becomes with a song called “Mon Ange”, but this time, it’s heavier, with more passionate vocals. Some parts in the melody, the industrial effects or Alina Dunaevskaya’s vocals remind me a little of “Bring me to Life”, while still sounding like their own thing. Its guitar solo is also pretty good, and sounds truly different from any of the band’s obvious inspirations. Other songs keep a similar mix of loud riffs, industrial sounds and very emotional and graceful vocals, such as the heavy and sinister “Another Breath”. “In my Dreams” has more industrial sounds, and nice vocalizing. They explore their industrial side a little bit more in the interlude “In the Obscure”. “Paperdoll” is one of their best mix of metal and industrial music, with its powerful riff and little music box-like synths.
Unfortunately, not every song is as strong as the ones I’ve mentioned. “Poussières de Vie” is a nice ballad, but feels very repetitive compared to the album. “Believe” brings on the same Going Under type of riffs we’ve already heard before. In fact, the album tends to use the same riffs, melodies and vocal lines so many times that the songs often blur together. At least, Alina’s sweet vocalizing and emotional delivery saves a lot of the songs.
Alina’s voice is undoubtedly the highlight of the album. Again, it’s not easy to tell who is the best fallenmaniac singer since they all have such different voices, but Alina makes a great case for herself. She’s not an exact soundalike to Amy Lee, as her voice is a lot higher-pitched, but she uses a similar phrasing, similar quiet-to-loud delivery where all her lines sound full of infinite sorrow. As a bonus, she sings in different languages in the album, mostly French and English, plus one song in Russian. Her enunciation and pronunciation is definitely better in French, and her delivery more passionate as well. On “ПОЗВОНИ МНЕ, ПОЗВОНИ”, she brings a sweetness unseen on the rest of the album (especially since she sounds much more laidback than the other tracks where she tends to over-sing), definitely not what you’d expect from the description “gothic metal song in Russian”. I think it’s a nod to childhood memories, which feels very Evanescence-y. Now I can say that this song is the “Imaginary” or “Hello” of the album.
That’s a great quality that Evanescence and Markize share: their music often feels melancholic or nostalgic, like a memory of a dark, messed-up childhood, with all the innocence, but also the fear and helplessness of that time in your life. You’ll either find it very moving, or too dramatic, but if you’re in the right mood for that type of music, both bands do it really well. And this is what makes Markize one of the good Fallenmaniacs: indeed, their music takes obvious inspiration from Evanescence, and they don’t exactly do anything too different, but it’s not a problem, because they have what made their inspiration so great. No, this album is not perfect, but it has made something good out of its influences. It’s a good imitation of Fallen, definitely better than others I’ve covered on this list, and that’s all that matters. Fallenmania can be either frustrating because all those bands feel so derivative, or it can be really enjoyable because it has what you enjoyed about Fallen.
