Arven
Black is the Colour

Arven are back, this time in what appears to be a darker iteration. The band is the same as before with the same five girls and a drummer, probably the best looking band on Massacre Records for those who cares about those things. The cover art looks better than it did last time around. Even before hearing this second album I knew it would be good considering what they did on the debut, the question was more along the lines of how good. The questions is wether or not two years of extra maturity has benefitted the music of the band who impressed a lot with their debut album Music of Light almost two years ago.

The music is recognisable from what we heard on the debut album, it is power/melodic/epic metal with lots of melody, some strings here and there as well as symphonic undertones. The vocals are female and excellent, beautiful yet powerfully performed. It is not all female though as there are some male additions in one of the tracks and in the background vocals. I would say that the sound is more powerful, much larger yet catchier and more melodic than on the debut album. The production is clearly an improvement from what they did last time around which was not exactly poor in any way, but this is better. You don’t even notice that the album version we have with bonus tracks plays for almost one hour, it is so varied and the strongest tracks sits at the right places to really keep interest up.

This album is quite close to six points for me but it is not quite there, which is no shame because very few albums reach those levels and just a few more than those that are awarded the six or seven points are even considered for that kind of rating. I think in the best moments like in the song Rainsong and perhaps also My Darkest Dreams and Ride On they are at that level so I must certainly say that I am becoming even more of a fan of this great band. A refreshing almost all female band that isn’t just playing on their looks, first and foremost they are really good musicians and Anastasia who plays the guitars and writes the songs show some amazing musical ideas. This is a brilliant band and I am sure that six or seven points scoring album is not far away, maybe the next album.

If you have yet to check this band out, don’t miss it because they are really excellent, definitely top ten of all power/melodic metal albums I have heard in the past two years maybe in a longer time as well. Impressive with a few really excellent songs, therefore I would suggest that if you consider yourself a music lover you should really not miss this album. Beautiful and epic, lets end with that clever line.

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