Much as it may come as a surprise to some, there was a time when having a female singer didn’t automatically denote you as ‘Gothic Metal’. Not everyone had to sound like either Nightwish, Evanescence or Lacuna Coil (it was usually one of those three) and your flourishing new band were just classed as ‘Female Fronted’ while the music press worked out which of the aforementioned three bands they could saddle you with. VXM (as my lazy keyboard skills shall refer to them from now on) remind me of that time. A time when if ‘Female Fronted’ was a genre that spanned anyone from Arch Enemy to…well…Evanescence.
VXM are a Dark Symphonic Progressive Metal project put together and masterminded by French multi-instrumentalist and all round smart-arse Christophe Florian. Aided by the nicely varied talents of vocalist/violinist Alix Rousselet and drummer Marco De Barros. This debut album is self-produced, but far too professionally done to be classed as a demo and I’m surprised that a label such as Femme Metal haven’t picked them up yet. Maybe it’s too hard for a potential label to categorize…after all, it doesn’t sound like Nightwish, Evanescence OR Lacuna Coil! But for that matter, but when you then broaden the ‘Female Fronted’ tag, it doesn’t sound like Arch Enemy, Within Temptation, Jex Thoth, Doro, Benedictum or Mostly Autumn for that matter.
It DOES sound very much like The Sins Of Thy Beloved – a short lived Napalm Records band that did two underrated albums just over 10 years ago. The Beauty/Beast vocals and musical style are also reminiscent of how Tristania were at the same time as well as Dakrua, Alas and Trail Of Tears. If you take The Sins Of Thy Beloved as your base though, there are also healthy elements of Dreams Of Sanity (‘Hypnos’), Amaran (‘Vermilion’ and ‘Poisonous Apple’) and Flowing Tears (‘Thirsty Years Of Life’). The music ranges from Dark Symphonic to Speed Metal – usually in the same song – and each arrangement is quite unpredictable and well thought out.
If you have heard of none of the bands listed above then lets face it, this CD is probably not for you. If you have…Happy Days! Someone is still out there with a female singer and thankfully NOT sounding like Nightwish…Evanescence…Lacuna Coil…
(6/10 – Andy Barker)
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