Advenae

Although Australia might not be the first country that comes to mind when talking about symphonic power/progressive metal, there’s quite a few excellent metal acts hailing from the country. Examples are Vanishing Point and Voyager, who both play an extremely melodic kind of progressive metal. Still, Australian metal hasn’t quite had the chance to share the spotlights with their Scandinavian or German counterparts, but the time to pay attention to the underground Australian metal scene (ugh, what a cliché) has definitely come. With Carmeria there’s yet another band to look out for.

So, what do we have here? A symphonic quintet playing gothic/power metal in the form of early Kamelot would be a perfect answer. The similarities between Roy Khan-era Kamelot don’t just end with their back in the day typical songwriting with sweeping symphonic elements, but also vocalist Jordan Von Grae sounds a hell of a lot like Khan himself. Especially in his lower regions and during the parts he sings in the slower songs like “Carpe Noctem” there’s plenty of recognisable moments. Unsurprisingly, though, the tone on Carmeria’s debut album Advenae is much darker than Kamelot ever was. Thanks to that, the material on Advenae doesn’t feel as plagiarised as you might think, perhaps with the exception of “To Lead the Blind”. The harsh vocals used throughout the album are a welcome addition as well, helping to distinguish the band from Kamelot even more.

Advenae generally is a very satisfying listen. The songs are accessible and for the better part don’t last longer than five minutes. While you might think the comparison to Kamelot could be a negative thing, the fact that Carmeria seem to have been inspired by such a big and well-known band actually helps their cause in this case. None of the songs on Advenae feel difficult or hard to go through at all, enabling Carmeria to quickly reach a reasonably big audience. The orchestral pieces complement the songs very convincingly and are part of the music rather than overwhelming. That said, I do sense the guitars have been tuned back a little too much at times. Advenae heavily relies on vocal harmonies, choirs and piano work. The (slightly outdated) mix gives each instrument plenty of space, which is well audible in ballad “Celestia”, for example. Still, I’d wish I could hear more lead guitar instead of rhythm guitar, because the leads and solos that are present here prove that guitarist Jerry Zahija can in fact play.

It doesn’t take too long until Advenae’s songs get stuck in your head. Part of that is thanks to the solid songwriting, that hardly misses a beat. The choruses are very memorable whilst maintaining a certain level of ‘I want to listen to that again’. Take for instance “Solaris”, which admittedly takes some time to warm up but then turns into a melancholic chorus that is successfully repeated multiple times towards the end of the song. “Starfall” does the same, with a slightly unnecessary and tedious intro, but a killer chorus where Von Grae absolutely shines. Moving on to “Veil of Sanctitude”, the problem of placing songs with slow intros behind each other becomes a little too noticeable, as the listener’s attention span might start to fade from here. Carmeria could’ve decided to speed up things here and there, but on the other hand, that’s not a very symphonic gothic metal-y thing to do, is it? Another option would’ve been to cut some ten minutes from the album, because at one hour and three minutes the album is too long for its own good.

In short, the band could’ve put a little more energy and excitement into the songs on Advenae. And though there’s a few more problems that Advenae suffers from, like an unoriginal songwriting concept harkening back to Kamelot’s glory days, Carmeria do a very good job at exactly what they’re doing. They’re a band loving the genre and seeing a future for themselves. Good marketing could bring them a long way, and if they can improve their music on a possible sophomore outing, I think we’ve got something really worthwhile here. Give Carmeria a whirl - you won’t be disappointed!

Highlights: “Morningstar”, “Carpe Noctem”, “Starfall”