The RMR crew still scratches its mutual heads why on earth the Metal Archives refuse to admit Amaranthe into its Holy Halls of Fame. It’s not that RMR himself suddenly found some red-hot love for that particular band, far from it. And we’re confused. Because, Elize Ryd1 prominently resides in the Encyclopaedia Metallum but not her main band. And that led to even more heavy head-scratching over at the office tower.
The reason? She allegedly partakes in a band called ‘Raskasta Joulua’ (Heavy Christmas in Finnish, no less). Rocky X-Mas carols and old Nightwish songs, that kind of thing. Metal by proxy only, by the way. She shares this spot with other prominent female metal singers.2 Amongst a whole troupe of well-known male vocalists that somehow co-exist there. But I digress.
So, why is this here rant important for the newest Carmeria record? Well, Tragédie D’amour, or love tragedy in English, just smacks of Pop Metal’s worst sins the moment Call Forth My Sorrow starts. A lot of the well-known same or similar structures roar forth, a male singer – Jordan von Grae – this time for the clears, high-pitched choruses, and some awfully bad growls that should have died in darkness. In other words, a fair portion of the record sounds like an offshoot of Amaranthe’s past Elize Ryd / Jake E / GG63 tag team from back in the day, with a slightly gothic flavoring. Not something that will garner many brownie points in RMR’s harsh world of metal judgment.
On the other hand, Tragédie D’amour‘s production received a fine shine of a polish. And this, despite all those Pop Metal urges with tracks rarely venturing beyond a 5-minute airtime. Often enough the band leads off into Power Metal territory. Sometimes speedily so with a flourish to make Kiske turn yellow with jealousy4 and at others with some Kamelot-esque crooning that the RMR crew started to appreciate more lately. All of that rolling in on some juicy hooks and peppered with high-pitched but pretty snazzy solos and rock-solid riffing.
But where has all that melancholy gone? The band projects it well in stills and moving pictures, just look at their gallery on the band site. But you need to scour the length of the album for some trve Gothic flavorings in their metal. And once you find them, Tragédie D’amour’s fuels the gothically-tainted interludes with a slightly baroque sound and feel. The last three tracks on the piece probably take the most advantage of Carmeria‘s dark gothic urges.
So, in the end, let’s not be too harsh with Carmeria. This is a complex and largely well-written record. And no doubt, the adepts of the Happy Metal Squad will find a lot to like here. The tracklist comes garnished with a riot of speedy Symphonic and Pop Metal tracks, whereas the ballad-infused songs kinda cover the gothic part. In short, the record oscillates between those Amarenthe-esque urges, any of Morten Veland’s ‘-ia records5, and offshoots of the masters of Power Metal.
The band call themselves – and I quote – “…dark genre-bending visionaries…” that are ready to “…take on the international gothic scene…” for good measure. And that’s all good and great. However, Tragédie D’amour didn’t quite smash the RMR Review Desk to smithereens with its irresistible onslaught. Instead, the déjà-vu factor increased exponentially as we progressed down their list of short-lived blurbs. Stuff we already smelt before, ‘best cuts’ used to fashion new songs that will talk to the uninitiated but not to the Gnostics o’ Metal. So, yet again, the RMR crew sees the talent on display, but the execution wallows in the dregs of what came before elsewhere a tad too much. Boy, even some of the band pics tell the very same story.
In short, there’s a lot to like on Carmeria‘s latest record, but the lack of thunderous innovation and boundless energy made us leave the building somewhat early. Looks like this wasn’t quite for us. Perhaps next time?
Record Rating: 5/10 | Label: Self-Released | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 23 August 2024