Ardours: Anatomy of a Moment

Ardours peddle their trade in what we lovingly? call Goth Metal, and will I have no doubt at all have fans of the likes of Epica, Within Temptation and such like drooling at the mouth. It’s all here, the...of course, female vocals, the big bombastic choruses, as well as the frenetic instrumentation. Now I may be coming across a little cynical, but it does feel as if this particular market has been done to death already with seemingly a new band of this genre appearing on a daily basis, yet I’m still quite pleasantly surprised when an album from said genre comes along that defies my cynicism. Formed by Tristania singer and multi-instrumentalist/producer Kris Laurent this album has a fair bit going for it. The vocals of Mariangela Demurtas are most pleasing and the histrionics are kept to a minimum and the song writing throughout is concise, this aspect of the record is the one that made me sit up and take notice.

The songs never outstay their welcome and are for the most part very well arranged with a real eye for detail and capturing the essence of each song quite beautifully. The keyboards which, rather than offer up background textures do on more than one occasion take centre stage with impressive results most notably on `Identified` `Anatomy of a Moment` and `Unannounced`, where they take the song off into different realms. There are of course the usual OTT Goth numbers such as `Insomniac` and `Chasing Whispers`, but what the band do very successfully is mix it all up with a real ear for the melody and particularly with the keyboard work giving the whole thing a rather cool retro feel.

It’s nice on occasion to have ones preconceptions blown out of the water, and here I’m happy to have my initial trepidation on listening to this album turned on its head. This is, of course at heart a Goth Metal album but one that certainly challenges the listener with its fairly original approach.

Track Listing
1. Epitaph for a Spark
2.Insomniac
3.Identified
4.Secret Worlds
5.Cold Revenge
6.Given
7.Anatomy of a Moment
8.Dead Weight
9.Unannounced
10.Chasing Whispers

Added: July 10th 2022
Reviewer: Malcolm Smith
Score:
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 559
Language: english

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