By Rob Kachluba
This is huge sounding, well done goth metal in the vein of Within Temptation – which is no wonder as so may ex members occupy the band. I believe this dutch outfit has reached the top tier of this style with this release. This sounds more cohesive then their debut, which had a more project type of feel to the release instead of feeling like a band effort. April Rain is very poppy at times with golden melodies in the songs. Nice crunchy guitars drive the songs and the vocalist is almost a dead ringer for the singer from Within Temptation. Their are some tracks that feature male vocals as well, courtesy of a guest appearance by Marco of Nightwish, and these in my opinion are the best songs. Production wise this album is huge and bright… maybe a tad too bright. The mix could stand to use a a bit more bass but it is not overly compressed like a lot of these type of releases are so that is a plus. If you like catchy pop metal with sugary choruses and bombastic driving arrangements with angelic vocals then you simply can’t do wrong with this. Colour me impressed.
(Sensory)
