Cross Vein - Gate of Fantasia (Review)

When you have achieved success, great temptation to continue exploit this model. You dont think about what can be done wrong. This is a very dangerous trap. This can be seen in new Rami album - you think you are improving, but in fact nothing is improving, but you only show your weaknesses more.

My Rating: 77/100

Source - cdjapan.co.jp

As for symphonic metal, there are a lot of opportunities for implementing ideas. And composers are actively using it. Starting from the fabulous drawlings from band Light Bringer from the time of their best albums (Midnight Circus (2010), Genesis (2012)) and ending with something cynical in the spirit of Heterogeneous Andead - all this can be put on same shelf.

But composer of this band fell into the trap of success. Of course, composer's work is quite good. But with close listening it becomes noticeable that 99% of attention is paid to one instrument. On synthesizer. I don't want to say that this is something bad, but lots for the rest instruments are just well-compiled templates. Nevertheless, here you can hear something in the spirit of 80's (3 track), something very pompous (4, 8, 11 tracks), typical power metal (8, 10 tracks) and even ballads (7 track).

Voice changes throught all album and vocal techniques are well combined. I can not say that Julia is very talented, but it's noticeable that she does not jump over own head.

Separately worth mentioning synthesizers. There is no need to recall what "synthesizer" means for symphonic metal. But here composer paid a lot of attention to parts for this instrument. It got to the point where only voice and synthesizers are heard in the mix. The result is a delight at first listening. The combination in tracks 3 and 9 looks especially interesting.

The rest instruments look boring. Guitarist has nothing interesting. Absolutely. Yes, in 5th track there is quite an interesting main riff. Yes, in 6th track guitarist still shows something interesting. But the rest is a continuous stream of boredom. Same with rhythm section. 5 track has a bass slap and interesting scales. It's cool, but interesting ideas end here. Drummer is also not particularly surprised. Yes, here is a pretty good combination of templates. Exception is 10 track, where you can hear the blast-beat and booty camp beat, as well as interesting fills on floor toms. But overall constructions is pretty boring.

It's beautiful, but it's ordinary chick-flick. Here we hear beautiful pictures that spawned a voice, as well as beautiful and diverse parts for synthesizer and ... That's all. If you listen carefully, there is not much interesting. This release scores at the expense of lirycs and a synthesizer. This should be expected from professionals? I don't think so.