Evenfall

Some bands reach their prime in stylistic beauty once they start stepping outside of the boundaries within their musical genre and bring in a confident degree of experimentation. Evenfall, hailing from Italy, is probably the clearest example of this evolution, as the band originally got together out of the ashes of the doom and death metal act Resurrecturis and has been in a constant state of metamorphosis ever since.

Following the release of their independent self-titled EP in 1997, "Evenfall", Evenfall's debut record "Still In The Grey Dying" was released in early 1999 on Century Media Records and was heavily promoted all throughout Europe on a 45-date support tour with Dimmu Borgir and Dark Funeral. Whereas this first record by the band was still portraying a rather bombastic and atmospheric mixture of melodic Black Metal and some Gothic elements often drawing comparisons to Cradle of Filth, it was obvious and predictable that the line-up of that time was in disagreement about the future compositions and presentation for Evenfall. Several member changes later, mastermind Ivan (Guitars) had managed to get together the right set-up to finalise the recording process for their sophomore record, "Cumbersome": Newly-discovered female vocalist Roberta Staccuneddu deserves credit for the most remarkable musical upgrade in Evenfall with her relaxed and angelic vocal delivery that always works in refreshing contrast to Ansgar"s tortured delivery.

Stylistically, "Cumbersome" does feature a move towards a more modern direction with versatile riffing and a more up-front incorporation of the keyboards as well as different loops and sound effects. Produced, recorded and mixed by Boban Milunovic at "Boom Room Studios", the spectre of variety and emotions featured on these 10 songs (including a metallic cover version of the hit single "Entre Dos Tierras" by Heroes Del Silencio with ex-Psychotic Waltz vocalist Devon Graves a/k/a Buddy Lackey as guest singer) is enormous and should easily appeal to fans of atmospheric Dark and Black Metal as well as to rather Gothic Metal oriented listeners of bands like Sins Of Thy Beloved / Lacuna Coil or also to people into the more electronic new shape of acts like Theatre Of Tragedy and The Kovenant.