Hear Me Out

This band appeared relatively late, when the whole doom/gothic metal carnival had long since passed beyond its pinnacle. Still, they translated their dark sombre style to the new millennium quite well leaving three full-lengths and one EP behind. They started their career at around the same time as the other female-fronted gothic outfit from their homeland, Lacuna Coil, but for some mysterious reason never managed to achieve their level of success. To these ears Even Vast have always been the much better proposition with a sound much more deeply immersed in arcane doom metal lore sounding closer to Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus than to Theatre of Tragedy and the Dutch Autumn, at least on the first two albums.

For the diva here, the name Antonietta Scilipoti, the first steps behind the mike were made in the classic thrash metal outfit Chaos & Technocracy who were active during the mid-90’s with a few demos and an EP released. After that project’s demise she and the guitar player Luca Martello decided to found another act and change the course towards heavier, more brooding sounds. They were looking for a really vast moniker to match their more encompassing this time musical orientation, and this is how Even Vast came about. The album reviewed here captures their new approach very nicely, and still stands as their finest achievement. “Never Hear Me” is more than a fitting opener unleashing all the doom and gloom the guys (and a girl) are capable of with sharp heavy guitars and Scilipoti’s assured vocal bravado which is never too adventurous, seldom hitting the very high registers recalling Anneke van Giersbergen (The Gathering). Mentioning the Dutch, the musical delivery also reminds of their magnum opus “Mandylion” although the Italians are relatively slower and more doom-prone.

Dynamics isn’t missing from the band’s arsenal as “Once Again” shows so well with its more vivid riff-patterns. “The One You Wish” is the hit, a brilliant doom/gothic opus which Lacuna Coil are yet to create; Scilipoti is helped by convincing male vocal insertions of the more dramatic cleaner type. “Foolish Game” returns to the more pensive doomy mould with more seismic riffs, but watch out for a great chorus and a more lyrical balladic deviation mid-way. “Memories” heightens the doomy drama becoming slower and less volatile, and “Energy” kind of misleads with its title since this is stomping doom metal all the same, nothing too energetic here. “Believe Me” moves around with a friendlier rhythm-section and a stronger gothic flair although the vocal diversity has been enriched with deeper death metal growls those recalling the behemoths Theatre of Tragedy. The final “RU” is a sprawling doom metal saga with elegiac tones reminiscent of mid-period My Dying Bride with an overlong quiet meditative break.

There’s nothing drastically new to be come across here, but the band do a good job in keeping the good old doom alive nicely recalling early female-fronted outfits from that genre like Mourn and Sacrilege (“Turn Black Trilobite”), never falling completely for the mellower gothic traps which had ensnared their colleagues Lacuna Coil again from the very start. Those were aptly avoided on the sophomore opus “Outsleeping” which was another graceful nod to the doom metal heritage, but on “Teach Me How to Bleed” (2007) the style had shifted towards dark wave with the gothic overtones still roaming around. A year later a change of name occurred to Even More Vast the delivery going further into the wave idea with almost no relations to metal. Yes, the guys (and a girl) eventually ended up accepting mellower conventions akin to Lacuna Coil (time and time again), but at least they spent a vast amount of time exploring those unfathomable fields of doom.