It’s always a pleasure to hear when a band switches a couple of members, finds their own sound and throws an album out there with renewed intent and focus. It would be a real shame right now if I said Sede Vacante weren’t one of those bands, but luckily I’m predictable and an exciting new dawn of this Symphonic Gothic Metal band is well and truly upon us. 2016 saw the band’s debut, a very competent affair of Melodic Symphonic Metal, which was a good start for a band finding their way in a crowded genre. Step forward new vocalist Stephanie Mazor, bringing with her a confidence and vitality that has helped to push the band in a heavier, more adventurous musical direction.
The dynamic guitar-work of Michael Tiko is still to the fore, but delivered with a little more power, aggression and intensity than before. Likewise, now that the guitars are heavier, the drums and bass also possess more licence to power the songs forward, pushed higher in the mix to further display the new-found confidence the band have as a unit. That mention once more of confidence brings us full circle to the note-perfect, strident vocals of the aforementioned Mazor, carrying every melody, driving it home and making it soar. Nowadays Sede Vacante occupy a musical territory somewhere between Volturian and Delain – yes, it’s that wide – managing to gel the Gothic Metal of 20 years ago with the Symphonic Metal of the present with a forward-thinking attitude. For instance, if you think you hear touches of Tristania, Penumbra or Angtoria, you are just as likely to hear Nemesea, Beyond The Black or Nocturna.
Although on the whole, this is a fabulously heavy, weighty album, brimming with meaty guitar and pounding rhythms, a further insight into the band’s current thought process can also be gleaned from their choice of cover version and their treatment of it. It would fit very well within this album’s soundscape to do a pounding, full-on Metal version of Rolling Stones’ ‘Paint It Black’. It’s been done before by other bands, but here, this innovative unit choose to concentrate on the original’s dark, mysterious, almost sinister undertones and really explore those instead. They give the track another dimension, let the melodies we all know carry the song and take the listener into a darker place, making the track a melancholy masterpiece rather than just another Metal anthem, thrown in as an afterthought. Because there are plenty of damn fine Symphonic/Gothic Metal anthems on this album to go around – take your pick! Therefore the band have chosen to just include one slower melancholy track of their own plus a true reworking of a popular track, which is a stroke of genius and the icing on an excellent album. This is a great album and feels like a band on the rise, just finding their own style, their own identity, and I’m sure that obvious confidence will grow with each future release.
(8.5/10 Andy Barker)
Leave a Reply