Walk In Darkness and Nicoletta Rossellini are a match made in heaven (you might know her from Kalida’s, we just got the news that Kalida is working on a new album: will be released next year) since 2015 and has become a gothic metal first class example of how a band from this kind of pool should sound like! The band has also the perfect leading lady for it! So let’s unbox this album together!
The Sound Of Rain starts with heavy male screaming/grunting. It’s only after 30 seconds I hear her magistral voice, breaking the aggressive start and giving it an angelic twist. When I ran into Nicoletta Rosellini’s voice for the first time she directly overwhelmed me and here she does it again! The main track: On The Road To Babylon starts as an acoustic ballad with the fragile voice of Nicoletta clearly upfronted. Emilliano Pasquinelli grunts gives it a hardcore feel.
Walk On The Sky starts with a bluesy feel and fragile vocal slices done by Nicoletta. Halfway we get more pathos and energy (next to the male grunts). The song goes up and down, like waves from a brutal sea whilst a whirlwind comes and goes. On The Moon Or On Mars starts with an opera-minded touch, has some electronics in it and has a clear acoustic and fragile touch. After a while the song gets a more gothic minded feel. Nothing is a very passionate gothic rock track with the showing off and excellent vocals done by Nicoletta! In The Mist of Time starts like a ballad, but get’s faster towards the end and gets fuelled too! Elisabetta Bettini does a guest appearance on My Restless Wings and gives it a special touch! It’s a cool duet! Time To Rise is simply the best song on this album as we can hear Nicoletta’s voice in all her aspects and the tempo goes up and down.
Critical System Failure is the last track on the album and sounds must softer (but is a very fragile and beautiful track) than expected when I for the first time read the title of the track. I also adore the bluesy guitar lick halfway. It’s a great end!
Walk In Darkness has it’s strength in ballads and fragile passages, the band needs to get a bit better in the other genre’s and explore it’s possibilities a bit more. For the rest I can state that this is an excellent band with a great frontwomen! Thumbs up!
