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Tracklist
1. Asylum
2. Forgive
3. Amoricide
4. Excarnation
5. Ephemeral
6. Bitheon
7. Homecoming
8. Nova
9. Wurmtod
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Winner of Wacken Open Air battle of the bands which lead to a deal with Armageddon records and the release of Succumbra. Vanguard feature 7 members and utilise piano, cello and differing vocals (clean female and male growls). Musically Vanguard employ melodic goth-tinged metal soundscapes over which they place 'overly bombastic' modern metal chugging and clean female / growling male vocals. The structure of the tracks tends to be formulaic with the clean female vocals predictably accompanying many of the melodic passages and the male growls accompanying the more chaotic parts of the songs and then overlapping with the clean vocals. This formula tends to wear thin over the 45 minute duration and what makes this album harder to bear is that the vocals carry the music instead of the music carrying the vocals. That being said, Vanguard do have the ability to produce some very nice melodic passages and tend to showcase this during their long outro's, in addition the occasional inclusion of 'latin' style guitar play sits nicely within the melodic passages. Vanguard are at their best in tracks such as 'Forgive' and 'Nova' which use the clean female vocals to great effect and which are complemented by the instrumentation. Unfortunately the production is somewhat of a letdown (even though Alex Krull (Atrocity, Cradle of Filth) is in command) with the bass being unwieldy and overly bombastic thus drowning out some of the more subtle elements of the songs.
If you want classical female vocals combined with death growls, get Aghora's self titled lp (if you can find it). If you want dark, gothic, truly haunting and captivating soundscapes track down any of Elend's offerings, otherwise 'Succumbra' will appeal to diehard fans of more accessible gothic melodic metal and inquisitive Evanescence fans.
Review by: Camio Miri
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