The Shadows' Madame

Before going any further in this review, I should point out that I've never heard a note recorded by Opera IX, Cadaveria's old band. Thus, I'm coming to her project absolutely cold and don't have any experience to compare it with.

The strength of this album is the music. There are some exceptionally catchy riffs which are sure to induce involuntary head movements on just about every track. For this reason alone, the album's worth a 50% score.

Unfortunately, Cadaveria herself seems to have decided that the Angela Gossow (Arch Enemy) style of "over-the-top rasp" is the right vocal to have. No, that's not quite fair. At times, she does in fact show slightly more versatility than Gossow seems capable of, but routinely her vocals get in the way of the music. As a general rule, she seems to have one sound - this sort of toneless rasp - and one sound only. Occasionally, there are extra notes which creep in, but these are few and far between.

I've tried listening to this album and ignoring Cadaveria's vocals, but this is more of a challenge than it should be, since they're so far up in the mix that it's just about impossible to ignore them. Instead, I'm treated to a constant stream of what sound like generic horror-inspired lyrics which show no real originality.

Some may say that I've missed the point here, and that the point about this band is that the vocals are this way (this is the only conclusion I can draw here), but if that's the case it really isn't my thing either. Read into this what you will, but I remain convinced that with a better vocalist this would be a much stronger album.