Artist: Mandragora Scream
Album: Volturna
Year: 2009
Rel. Date: 2009-11-23
Genre: Metal
Label: Irond

MANDRAGORA SCREAM is a female fronted gothic metal
band from Italy. It was founded in 1997 by Morgan
Lacroix, whose amazing, rather powerful voice with
its peculiar timbre became the distinctive feature
of the formation. In 2001, the debut album Fairy
Tales from Hell s Cave was released and as all
songs on the CD were potential hits it brought the
musicians the popularity they really deserved as
newcomers. The following works were not so
impressive but they definitely showed the
direction MANDRAGORA SCREAM chose for further
development. The new album Volturna is intended
to display the level the band has already
achieved, or has it?

The CD as usual starts with a beautiful ambient
intro, which make you think the other tracks may
be even a way better. And there comes I m Going
Alone , a powerful, energetic, industrial song
which in general produces a good impression
despite the predominance of synthetic sound and
strange experiments with the vocals. The next two
compositions bring only disappointment because all
the negative characteristics mentioned before
increase. But actually the album is full of
surprises and Breaking Dawn , Killing Game and
Blindness prove it. The vocals on these songs
charms and attracts almost at the very beginning
and it perfectly combines with the music
Breaking Dawn can be marked out for its
interesting lyrics, smooth melody gradually
getting heavier and even some looseness of the
rhythm doesn t seem a serious shortcoming

Killing Game is just a vigorous well-done track
when nothing can be added to the music to make it
better. On Blindness , my favourite composition
on the CD and the most atmospheric melancholic
one, you finally realize that you listening to a
gothic metal band. However, it s easy to begin to
doubt again as all the other songs are monotonous
flat, boring and the instruments almost disappear
among artificial sounds. Two covers presented on
the album are well-done and deserve one s
attention. The melodic ambient outro is also of
interest and the CD, still containing a lot of
ordinary, run-of-the-mill tracks, is worthy to
listen to in order to enjoy those rare, and
because of that even more impressive songs, which
can be found on it. But of course, you need to
look for them properly

1. Lui 2:12
2. I'm Goin' Alone 4:24
3. The Circus 4:20
4. Deceiver 3:38
5. Breaking Dawn 3:36
6. Killin' Game 3:21
7. Blindness 4:22
8. Farewell 4:28
9. A Chance from Him 3:29
10. The Calling from Isaia 4:33
11. Bang Bang (Cher cover) 3:12
12. The Seagull's Creed 3:39
13. Fade to Grey (Visage cover) 3:18
14. Nails 5:33
15. Heartbound Eve 5:22
59:27

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