Volturian is a modern metal band founded by singer Federica Lanna (Sleeping Romance) and songwriter Federico Mondelli (Frozen Crown), based on the huge contrast between mellow, dreamy female vocals and heavy downtuned guitars, with a massive infusion of electronic music. Release: 24 April 2020
Well frankly: never heard of this one and caught them when I was looking for something new. To be honest they sound a bit like the band I discovered last year: Rage of Light (except that Bonny has a better voice ). It must be hard when you run behind a genre, like this one. Female fronted metal bands (even mixed with electronics) are getting old and mostly sounds like you heard it all before.
Don't scare too much when you hear the electro / new beat minded first track: it's just the warming up track! Crimson Dust is a joke, but it's funny and sounds good enough to warm up an audience and make thgem laugh a bit when they hear it for the first time. New Life sounds a bit like the new Avril Lavigne who got indeed a new life and who has become a grown up. The poppy and commercial metal/rock sounds good. Even the grunts and screams of the male population within this band wont scare away the older people. The song has something catchy and sounds soft enough without leaving the metal path.
Haunting Symphony has the drummer dropping bombs until Lanna starts to sing, but get's pushed away each time so stops to sing. The song goes up and down, with lot's of variation. Broken is one of my favorite tracks on this album as it mixes metal and electronics in a perfect way whilst male and female vocals fight over eacht other and try to conquer the heart of the song. It might become a hit on stage! This song not only reminds me of Rage of Light but also about The Unguided. The Killing Joke has nothing to do with the band in the title of the song but is a cool up-tempo electro/metal track. In A Heartbeat get's extra vocal help from Giada “Jade” Etro (Frozen Crown’s lead vocalist) and that makes it a great female fronted duet at a high speed. Again: the mix between guitars and electro works well! More powered up is the track called: Between Sleepers and yet sounds o so catchy! Days Before You Died sounds harder then expected when I read the title. It's not a ballad, but a melodic and speeded up melancholic pop/rock track (with a slic of a techno/trance touch). Forevermore is catchy as hell and reminds me of some old track from the 80's but can't find the title or the band corresponding to it. They end with a tribute to the late Marie Fredriksson with their cover version of Roxette'sFading Like a Flower. If you forget about certain extra bits you would say somebody reworked the original as the vocals don't differ much from the original. It's bizar. It's a bit hard commenting this track: I like it but come so close to the original that I can even see the original singing it.
I must say it took me half a day to get used to their sound without beiing too critical and only now I can say the album is not bad at all!
