Meden Agan
Lacrima Dei
No Regrets Records
2014
“Lacrima Dei” is the third album from the Greek symphonic melodic metallers. Following some line-up changes they are debuting an all new and revitalized line-up consisting of Maya (vocals), Diman (guitars), Aris (bass), Panos (drums) and Tolis (keys) that seems to be trimming away the fat and excessive over the top arrangements instead opting for a more modern direction with more streamlined and to the point musical ideas being the order of the day. Fans of Nightwish, Within Temptation and Epica of old, wouldn’t be too disappointed, especially the latter, to which the band bears the most similarities at this point. The album was mastered at Finnvox Studios by Mika Jussila (Nightwish, Avantasia, Stratovarius, etc.) which has aided the result in sounding quite uniform and illustrious.
Their new frontwoman Maya Kampaki has an interesting enough voice. While she does have slight traces of an accent, they are far from annoying and when she sings in her middle voice, she achives her best delieveries… she seems compelled to launch in some higher tessituras, that she doesn’t seem to be too comfortable singing in always, although sometimes she's rather good in doing them admittedly.
Opener “Divine Wrath” is an example of what we mentioned above. It’s a spirited mid-tempo with a nice melody, with an almost folk, lead part, that would remind you of accordions or something similar, that’s quite enchanting really, but Maya, getting pretty airy, on the chorus.
On “Lacrima Dei” things get slightly more melancholic, and measured and again there’s a nice solo that doesn’t feel out of place, although, the duration feels a little more than it should have been.
“Embrace the Sorrow” is a heavier and more lamenting number, in which for the first time we can trace some harsh male vocals, few... of them and what really stands out, on this one how much more, front stage the keyboards, are on this one. On all the songs there are some pretty strong keyboard elements or melodies, but on this one, the keyboards, antagonize the guitar, almost bar for bar, throughout the song and volume wise, they sound equally as loud, or sometimes even louder.
“Portal of Fear” turns the tables slightly, with some whispered male vocals, mostly leading the way, then “MayAn” choirs… and replies from Maya, coming back throughout the song’s duration... it’s definitely something different, and quite interesting, as it’s definitely changes the pace and the style, into something far more dark and gothic. Quite interesting, admittedly.
“Everlasting Pain” begins with somber pianos and soft vocals and as Maya, hesitates between changing between a normal singing voice which is quite beautiful at the middle tone she uses and breaking into a pseudo operatic delivery, it sounds quite nice, for the most part. In fact had she sung it all normally, it would have probably been even nicer.
On “Web of Shadows” which is decidedly more symphonic she opts for the latter slightly pseudo operatic delivery, but thankfully, she does so, maintaining a tessitura that she’s comfortable in, so it sounds, quite nice. Albeit the song becomes a bit meandering following a nice start and hasn’t got much more to display than a nice melody around its chorus.
Now I have no clue who or what “Nuntii Belli” might be, (but I suppose that’s what Google is for right?! – but I could not be bothered anyway.) This is a far more hard hitting number with lots of male vocals/harsh ones and a few – responses that mostly appear as choir/type ones.
“Loss” has some chords that almost sounded “borrowed”, from Dream Theater, but I guess at this day and age… originality is hard to achieve… it’s a softer ballad, that has a nice delivery from Maya, that shows that the young lady definitely has ability, but obviously when she slows down, her slight accent issues are becoming fairly obvious. (But it’s nothing she wouldn’t be able to surpass in a few years with a fair bit of effort)…
“Devoid of Sanity” is a somewhat more complicated composition, with both male and female clean leads, taking turns from each other and a rather nice chorus.
Last but not least “Commemorate the Fallen” is another quite complex number, with probably the most daring vocal arrangements, on all the album and some quite beautiful melodies, probably, the crowning achievement of the album and the best performance of everyone on the album including the young Maya.
Overall, a very good album, from a band that previously, I couldn’t really care much for, because I considered too over the top and boring lacking good performances. A definite improvement, stemming from the line-up changes. I suppose there’s still room for improvement, but they are definitely on a path that might lead them to some level of recognition in the future if they have a certain level of perseverance.
Their new frontwoman Maya Kampaki has an interesting enough voice. While she does have slight traces of an accent, they are far from annoying and when she sings in her middle voice, she achives her best delieveries… she seems compelled to launch in some higher tessituras, that she doesn’t seem to be too comfortable singing in always, although sometimes she's rather good in doing them admittedly.
Opener “Divine Wrath” is an example of what we mentioned above. It’s a spirited mid-tempo with a nice melody, with an almost folk, lead part, that would remind you of accordions or something similar, that’s quite enchanting really, but Maya, getting pretty airy, on the chorus.
On “Lacrima Dei” things get slightly more melancholic, and measured and again there’s a nice solo that doesn’t feel out of place, although, the duration feels a little more than it should have been.
“Embrace the Sorrow” is a heavier and more lamenting number, in which for the first time we can trace some harsh male vocals, few... of them and what really stands out, on this one how much more, front stage the keyboards, are on this one. On all the songs there are some pretty strong keyboard elements or melodies, but on this one, the keyboards, antagonize the guitar, almost bar for bar, throughout the song and volume wise, they sound equally as loud, or sometimes even louder.
“Portal of Fear” turns the tables slightly, with some whispered male vocals, mostly leading the way, then “MayAn” choirs… and replies from Maya, coming back throughout the song’s duration... it’s definitely something different, and quite interesting, as it’s definitely changes the pace and the style, into something far more dark and gothic. Quite interesting, admittedly.
“Everlasting Pain” begins with somber pianos and soft vocals and as Maya, hesitates between changing between a normal singing voice which is quite beautiful at the middle tone she uses and breaking into a pseudo operatic delivery, it sounds quite nice, for the most part. In fact had she sung it all normally, it would have probably been even nicer.
On “Web of Shadows” which is decidedly more symphonic she opts for the latter slightly pseudo operatic delivery, but thankfully, she does so, maintaining a tessitura that she’s comfortable in, so it sounds, quite nice. Albeit the song becomes a bit meandering following a nice start and hasn’t got much more to display than a nice melody around its chorus.
Now I have no clue who or what “Nuntii Belli” might be, (but I suppose that’s what Google is for right?! – but I could not be bothered anyway.) This is a far more hard hitting number with lots of male vocals/harsh ones and a few – responses that mostly appear as choir/type ones.
“Loss” has some chords that almost sounded “borrowed”, from Dream Theater, but I guess at this day and age… originality is hard to achieve… it’s a softer ballad, that has a nice delivery from Maya, that shows that the young lady definitely has ability, but obviously when she slows down, her slight accent issues are becoming fairly obvious. (But it’s nothing she wouldn’t be able to surpass in a few years with a fair bit of effort)…
“Devoid of Sanity” is a somewhat more complicated composition, with both male and female clean leads, taking turns from each other and a rather nice chorus.
Last but not least “Commemorate the Fallen” is another quite complex number, with probably the most daring vocal arrangements, on all the album and some quite beautiful melodies, probably, the crowning achievement of the album and the best performance of everyone on the album including the young Maya.
Overall, a very good album, from a band that previously, I couldn’t really care much for, because I considered too over the top and boring lacking good performances. A definite improvement, stemming from the line-up changes. I suppose there’s still room for improvement, but they are definitely on a path that might lead them to some level of recognition in the future if they have a certain level of perseverance.