Album Reviw: Volturian - Crimson

I'm not entirely sure what to make of Volurian. On the one hand, I do quite enjoy melodic metal sung by a woman's voice. On the other hand, the thought of "a massive infusion of electronic music" scares the living daylights out of me. Metal has been trying to fuse with the modern pop sound for a while now, and while there have been success stories, there has also been a lot of music that doesn't understand how the elements can be blended together. It's not enough to throw them together and assume everything will work. It requires some thought, and some nuance, and neither of those words is normally associated with metal. Still, it's worth a listen.

I'm already a bit put-off by the first seconds of "New Life", when the keyboards are at the forefront of the mix, and the guitars are much quieter and in the background. The music would sound more powerful with a better balanced mix, and it might also hide that the synths and guitars aren't as cohesive as they could be. That's a shame, since the song is pretty good. Federica's voice isn't the most dynamic, but on this song she plays the hook straight, and it's a memorable little tune.

But the nature of the music, and Federica's voice, means that these songs need to be sharply written if they are going to work. Subtle melodies can absolutely work, but they have to be the right ones, and they need some help. That doesn't always happen with this record. It's constructed in a similar way to the recent album I talked about from The Birthday Massacre. Volturian is far more metallic, but they are both subtle records. The difference is that The Birthday Massacre has a unique sound and atmosphere even when the songs don't quite hit. Volturian's instrumentals sound enough like a generic modern metal band that the weaker songs don't have that something to make them stand out.

The good songs, like "In A Heartbeat", work really well. They're similar enough to the current pop metal trends that they sound fresh and hooky, but without the obvious pandering to the mainstream that some bands go through. The trick is repeating the feat, and that's where Volturian falls a bit short. With nine songs after the intro, they don't have enough of those great ones for me to say the album works as a whole. Half the record is obviously stronger, and the other half lacking a bit of spark. That's what I was expecting, given the difficulty of nailing subtle music song after song.

Ultimately, there are things to like about Volturian's record, but I don't see it being a record I will be returning to with regularity. They have potential, but there's some songwriting development that needs to happen before I can really recommend them.