Having reviewed an album of theirs almost a decade ago and another a couple years later, I see that Oliver Nikolas Schmid is the sole remaining member and Tony Berger was on the latter release. Gone is Oliver’s brother and founding member Christopher, from about 5 years ago it would appear, and this album is the third release with his replacement Rob Vitacca on vocals. This shall however be Dominik Scholz’s first outing on the drums and no bassist is listed. From what I can tell, their style hasn’t changed very much, but does appear to be slightly more mellow focusing more on inner turmoil and anguish than anger and frustration.
A beautiful piano piece opens “My Release In Pain”, but when the rest of the band come in it actually sounds like a full orchestra, albeit one playing distorted guitars and drums. Allowing the piano to be the main melody which the guitars follow is very effective, as is Rob’s use of slightly raspy vocals during one verse owing to its complete contrast to his deep, smooth clean vocals.
The title track, “Antiadore” has a simple but catchy tune with an almost dancey undercurrent in the rhythm played on the guitar. I made this comparison previously, but the H.I.M. similarities are undeniable.
A good strong guitar riff is just what is needed on “What I’m Not”, but sadly the opening riff isn’t used nearly enough on the song, but the melodic riff that accompanies it manages to carry the song on its own regardless and allowing the vocals to be the focal point.
The wonderfully laconic “All For Nothing” opens subtly with a slow guitar which does eventually build up halfway through the song, but never detracting from the fact that it’s meant to be mournful rather than upbeat.
“Dead To Me” on the other hand is surprisingly upbeat, but with a rather melancholic piano accompaniment to temper it nicely and giving Rob’s vocals two options to follow, which he does to great effect.
An almost doom metal riff is used on “Abandon”, as is a rather electro keyboard, but it is the steady, but fast paced drumming that gives the song a much livelier feel than most of the others on the album.
Predominantly focusing on a slow vocal delivery “Still In Need” has the guitars being gently picked in the background along with some full bar chords in the choruses to prevent it from being completely monotone.
“Deny For Now” has a pleasant Goth ‘n’ Roll feel to it. An airy background keyboard tinkle with a chunky guitar driving it along to the steady drum beat makes the rather happy sounding vocals seem perfectly suited to the song.
The first clearly discernible lead is on the haunting “Head Held High”, with it also being one of the slowest songs on the album and definitely one to get those light^H^H^H phones out at a gig and waved overhead.
A rather emotionally delivered “My Chest” works really well as a rock ballad as it builds slowly but never bursts out to leave you writhing with a hole in your torso.
The keyboards and machine steady drumming on “Remembrance Song” make it the poppiest song on the album.
The melancholy melody of “A Sigh” has the keyboards filling the sound out completely with their eerie overtones, but the solid guitar riffs are what make the song. The deep vocals are sung at a slow and steady tempo contributing to the song never feeling rushed as it fades out to end the album.
If you enjoy H.I.M., Katatonia or Type O Negative, you’ll enjoy this, but that said they aren’t covering any new ground, no matter how proficient they are at it.
(5/10 – Marco Gaminara)
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