Against

Secret Rule belong to a glut of Italian bands coming out to inform us the female fronted metal is alive and well, producing a whopping five albums since their inception in 2014 (not counting their recent nu-metal covers album). ‘Against’ functions as a cliché factory spitting out chunky riffs, poppy synths, not-so-subtle electronics, and of course, massive choruses courtesy of the tasty Angela Di Vincenzo. Still interested? Probably not, but I’m going to tell you about it anyway.

The band that springs to mind while spinning this is quite obviously Beyond The Black. Angela’s inflections are identical to Jennifer Haben’s, especially how she ends the notes. She has that same emotional edge and a similar approach to constructing melodies, which are certainly catchy, but not up to the arena-filling pomposity of Paeth’s contributions to ‘Heart Of The Hurricane’, leaving most of the power metal stuff off the table in favor of a more Amaranthe-orientated sound, only without the growls and Jake pretending he’s in Westlife. I’d say the only difference between this and Beyond The Black’s stuff, aside from the lack of Avantasia-isms, is ‘Against’ is consistently heavy, with a brash guitar tone and more expressive riffing. Other than that, this is sort of a sad carbon copy, which manages to remain listenable despite it’s disadvantage from the outset. I think Angela does a great job here, and really, with this kind of music, you’re just in it for the chicks, and she puts in a flawless, studio-enhanced performance that will obviously do the trick if that’s what you’re here for. I love listening to girls wail in metal, so I’ll forgive Secret Rule for not coming up with something groundbreaking. Doesn’t take anything away from songs like ‘Deep Solitude’ and stupidly catchy opener ‘Spira Mirabilis’, the best tune here.

There are few surprises besides a couple of well-structured solos, but this is definitely more metal than Beyond The Black, tapping into a bit of mid-period Delain on more introspective tunes, and a snifter of Metalite on those with more power. I like this fine when it’s playing, and next time I fancy ‘Songs Of Love And Death’ I might just have ‘In The Shadows’ and pop this in instead. Fans of commercial, poppy femme metal will get a bang out of this, but most of you won’t.