Kilmara - Love Songs and Other Nightmares

Kilmara Love Songs and Other Nightmares cover
Kilmara
Love Songs and Other Nightmares
Sony Music
2014
6
Kilmara are a Spanish band with a German singer apparently (?) with some 3 demos and inclusive of this one, 3 albums. It’s been now some 2 years since this album was recorded by Roland Grapow, but it seems that the band wanted to try and achieve the best they could, so they took their time and it only surfaces some two years later.
 
Mysteriously this album got the local Spanish Sony Music interested in signing them up… taking into account that even distribution would be denied to semi established companies in recent years, this is at least suspicious. At any rate... maybe it has to do with who they know...
 
Wolf’s vocals are reminiscent of Blaze Bailey, more or less, a medium range with a manly sort of color, but nothing extraordinarily brilliant really. The band seems decent as well three albums in their career, not having any issues with their performances, their melodic, traditional metal that doesn’t really require any particular chops, just some basic cohesion and good chemistry, which is there, being pretty standard.
 
The opener, “Fantasy” could have been, a decent number, but it features some death metal vocals that swift it, from sounding like a Virtual XI, leftover, to a bad Children of Bodom meets In Flames hybrid, with some clean vocals and less capable solos.
 
“Devil’s Eye” and “Break Up” could have been lifted from one of Bailey’s “good” solo albums like say “Silicon Messiah”…. but they’re overall no more than a good riff and a half decent chorus. Nothing amazing.
 
“Cold Rain” is more of the same, with a few more modern influences and a somewhat slower middle section that tries to build an atmosphere.
 
“Believe” is the band’s attempt to do a power/epic track, without being exactly a ballad, since it’s too shouted, to be one… it’s a great composition, but I’m guessing that CW is really reaching his “limits” on this one as a singer, on a constantly strained performance...
 
“Nothing to Me” resorts to a more direct, riffy and modern, hard hitting style, that’s somewhat reminiscent of what Bruce Dickinson did in his solo albums, (ie “Broken”) but with the lower vocals, the results are less than gratifying.
 
“Usual Strangers” caters to more of that fast, riffy, powerful, Maidenesque rock/metal but this time infuses things with a bit more melody... resulting in a slightly more pleasing tune, including a minute solo that’s also quite interesting.
 
“Alpha” is very rhythmical and its intro is full of folk references, but as soon as the singing begins Wolf, starts squealing like a little girl! Initially, I thought the song had to do with religious themes, but, closer inspection led me to believe that it had to do with the consumption of the alcoholic beverage, known as beer, and possible there must be a brand in Spain called “Alpha” that the band must be particularly fond of ! lol! At least I hope they got an endorsement!
 
“Insomnia” is basically a boring number that other than its vocal melody during the chorus, can’t boast any other things as pros. But I have an arm long list of cons going on against it!
 
“Play to Win” is based in a punchy and chunky riff and here, CW drops down to a range that’s more easy for him to sing. It might be a bit more boring, and his voice might sound like a very limited
 
“Messiah Marcolin” using only his lows and mids, but at least, that’s better than listening to him trying to sustain notes that he barely can hit. This is also one of the better songs on the album, even if it’s a bit repetitive towards the end.
 
Last but not least there’s a balladesque song called “Time Flies” that’s pretty decent but could have been better if CW was a better singer, the closing of the song with a polyphony is quite an interesting and daring choice too. There’s also a German/Spanish hybrid version included as well, that’s also interesting, obviously, the languages sound a little “different” to an English listener and some lyrics need to really be bent out of the measures to fit, but that’s OK... It also seems that CW is more at ease when using his native tongue, while he doesn’t have an accent, his way of utilizing his voice is more proper when he’s doing it natively.
 
Without having decisively bad ideas, with an obvious love for Maiden among other things, a decent German vocalist and a few good songs, but not enough to make them really shine, Kilmara are surely interesting, solid even, but not something that will blow your mind. At least with a title like that they’re not a HIM clone, which I was very much afraid of at first. Then upon gazing the cover I thought, wow, maybe they’re female fronted and whether they sound good or bad that’s a very pretty lady, (if she’s the singer). 2/2 times I was wrong. Trad Metal. Retarded me… cheeky