Kore

My relation with female-fronted symphonic metal as a genre has always been one of love-and-hate. There are incredibly talented artists, but also dozens of bands that seem to be playing little more than slightly metallized versions of the boilerplate “karaoke pop music” one would expect to find on the likes of X-Factor or The Voice. The genre’s bad rep is mostly due to the endless proliferation of the latter kind of bands, which is a shame as it prevents true talent out there to emerge and reach the wider audiences they would deserve. Australian-based up-and-coming act Victoria K are definitely one of the genre’s better offerings, and their sophomore record Kore – out this week via Rockshots Records - is a strong testament to that.

The band is led by the super-talented vocalist Victoria Knight, who also wrote and arranged all the music for the new album, with the help of music composer and producer Lee Bradshaw. Guitarist Troy Downward, drummer Gerry Pantazis and bass player Craig Newman complete the line-up that played on Kore, while Bradshaw also took charge of keys and synths and Charlie Curnow (who plays bass for the band in live shows) provided extreme vocals on several songs. Moreover, the album features orchestral arrangements scored by Bradshaw and recorded by two European orchestras (the Budapest Scoring Orchestra and the Moscow Bow Tie Orchestra). So far, the album’s credits paint a familiar picture. Electric instruments are juxtaposed to orchestral arrangements, creating a dramatic contrast between lush symphonic parts and more aggressive, metallic segments. The vocals play on the usual beauty-and-the-beast dualism, with Victoria Knight’s deep and melodious cleans on the one hand, and Charlie Curnow’s grim death/black growls on the other. There’s a strong focus on melody and ear-worming vocal hooks appear virtually in every song. The soundscape is familiar -so what makes this album special, you ask?

There are at least three aspects that made Kore stand out for me: its exceptional songwriting, the prominent influence of Greek traditional music, and the album’s strong production value. First, the songwriting is truly masterful. Kore is a concept album focused on the story of Persephone, the goddess of vegetation, who is abducted by Hades and taken as his bride to the Underworld, where she resides for six months per year (whereby vegetation withers), while spending the rest of the year on Earth (and the vegetation flourishes again). The album’s 11 songs trace a beautiful emotional arc that perfectly matches the narrative of the myth, exploring its different emotions and moods, from the despair and sense of loss experienced by Persephone’s mother after her abduction (“Mother’s Garden”, “The Child”), to the dramatic struggles between Persephone and Hades (“Persephone”, “Blasphēmia”, “Pomegranate”), to the return of serenity as Persephone is temporarily brought home to her mother (“The Afterlife”). This variation creates a satisfying sense of moving forward rather than stagnation, which is exactly what I expect from a concept album.

This impression is further accentuated by the increasing complexity of the songwriting as the album moves towards its central part – a master twist that I just did not see coming. Four songs into the album, I thought I kinda knew where this album was going, with its slightly gothic take on symphonic metal and focused, chorus-centred songwriting. But then “Persephone” kicked in, and all my preconceptions were thrown out the window. This track and “A Divine Revelation” break away from the norms of conventional songwriting and venture into progressive metal territory, with complex structures, even more dramatic shifts in dynamics, and passages that experiment with different sounds and styles in a way that I was not expecting to find on this album, but that fit beautifully into it (the opening bars of “Persephone”, where Charlie Curnow’s grim growls are introduced for the first time layered upon a naked drum beat, had me check whether my MP3 player had skipped to a different album!). These two songs display a different side of the band, more forward-thinking and exploratory, which reminded me of those early (brilliant) Tristania’s albums where you could not quite guess what the next song would bring. After the emotional and artistic climax provided by “Persephone” and “A Divine Revelation”, Kore returns to a somewhat more conventional songwriting in the remaining songs. This may feel a bit like a comedown after the high of the previous two songs (”I want more of THAT!”), but it is appropriate in the context of the story, as the drama winds down to its bittersweet conclusion.

Kore also stands out for its strong folk influences, as Victoria Knight brought her Greek cultural heritage to the fore not only in the choice of topic for the album’s concept, but also in her lyrics and the music itself. Middle-Eastern flavoured melodies that reference Greek traditional music pop up literally everywhere throughout the album. It’s a joy to listen to how Victoria K weave them into their symphonic metal sound, which will appeal to fans of so-called Oriental Metal and bands like Orphaned Land or Myrath that also bring together heavy metal and Middle-Eastern and Arabic music. The use of Ancient Greek in the lyrics, interspersed with English, is another stroke of genius, as it adds an unusual, beautiful phrasing to Victoria’s singing that is extremely fascinating and immediately catches attention.

Another thing that I found unusual, but highly effective, is the album’s production. A lot of metal today is awfully overproduced, with myriads of overdubbed voices competing for a very narrow sonic space and an overall sound that often comes across as plasticky and excessively polished. Producer Lee Bradshaw took a diametrically opposite approach here. The arrangements and sound design instil a clear hierarchy between the music’s different voices (Victoria’s vocals, the guitars/drums/bass ensemble, the orchestral parts), which in this way don’t steal room from one another overcrowding the sound space, but rather play off each other in true symphonic fashion. Meanwhile, soundwise Kore feels almost underproduced: the guitar and drums are very raw and unpolished. It may be jarring at first and it takes a few spins to get used to, because this is not how one expects a symphonic metal record produced today to sound. But once I got into the album’s sound, I loved it. It gives the music an extra bite and almost makes you feel like you are sitting in the band’s rehearsal space, with the musicians playing live in front of you. Sometimes, things may have been taken a bit too far (“Blasphēmia”, which is the heaviest track on the album, sounds a bit too rough for my taste), but overall Kore makes for a refreshing and satisfying listening experience. Again, I am reminded of those early 2000s Tristania productions, which may have felt a bit rough around the edges, but had all the more character for it. The same is true here – Kore lives in its own sound dimension and it does not feel like just another “regular” symphonic metal album.

My review so far has deliberately not touched much on the vocal qualities of the band’s lead singer, which are often the focus of reviews in the symphonic metal genre. This is not because there isn’t much to say there: to the contrary, Victoria Knight has a stunning voice, capable of switching smoothly between mellifluous melodies and powerful screams. But with this review I really wanted to highlight the genuine superiority of the music as a whole, compared to other releases in the same genre. Victoria K are not in the business of simply providing an outlet for their singer’s vocal talents. They are in the business of navigating the boundaries of the symphonic metal genre, embracing progressive metal and traditional folk influences and tastefully blending them together to create a refreshing and unique sound. If you are into symphonic metal, but expect more from a genre that is often too stale and self-referential, Kore is definitely the album you have been waiting for. No excuses, then – buy it now!

[Originally written for The Metal Observer]