The End Is Just the Beginning

Swiss Heavy Metal band Arcanum have been around since 2004 and managed to release two full length demo albums so far, “Bloody Wings of Comeback” in 2006 and “The End is Just the Beginning”, which I am reviewing here, in 2008.

Arcanum plays pretty straight forward heavy metal, although they incorporate some modern elements in their music. The album starts out with a keyboard intro accompanied by spoken passages. The album really kicks off with “Speed of Light”, which is quite a fitting name, because the band immediately pushes the peddle with some up-tempo Heavy Metal, only speeding down at the very end of the song. Although the first track might be one of the faster tracks on the album, the rest of the songs is not lacking in stomping guitar work.

Most band members where in now defunct band Overload before forming Arcanum and their years of experience are evident when listening to this release. The instruments are played with skill, which is not always the case with independent bands.

The vocals are handled by female vocalist Gabriella. She has a solid and enjoyable voice in the tradition of female front women like Doro. She sings in her clear voice for most of the release, but sometimes surprises the listener with some quite impressive rough vocals. There are even some grunts to be found, although I’m not sure if Gabriella is responsible for these too.

The look of the release is that of a typical low-budget demo, the actual disc being a CD-R and the cover a low quality print. But I guess it’s better to spend your time and money on the production and actual music. If the band wants to stand out and maybe be picked up by a label though, they might consider to give the visual aspect some extra attention.

Although the music played by Arcanum is not ground-breaking or innovative, “The End is Just the Beginning” is a collection of solid and enjoyable Heavy Metal tracks.