Heavenwood
Redemption

A second Heavenwood-album reviewed by us at Hallowed, the Portuguese band gets many album released this year and the one I reviewed earlier was rather good but not fantastic. This album has a better-looking artwork; it certainly looks more exciting than the previous one I reviewed. And I must add that it is a better-sounding album as well, it has a less dull and dark mood.

Musically it is gothic metal with darkish mood and all of that, perhaps it is the cover but I sense that this album has a more feminine side and it is more upbeat than the previous album I reviewed. The production is very good and their performances are all strong. I think, perhaps thanks to the guest musicians, that this album has some depth and variation while still remaining strongly coherent. I do however think that the style limits their audience and it will most likely just appeal to fans of their own genre, of course that is probably enough even though I think every band wants a genre-crossing appeal in some way. 55 minutes of music on ten tracks is what this album has on offer, and we get quite strong variation over these tracks.

I would say that if I was a major gothic metal fan I would be quite happy with this album, thinking it was quite great and everything. It certainly has much more appeal than the album by the same band I reviewed earlier but that doesn’t mean it gets a higher rating, part in that is the fact that this is a rerelease of an album released in 2008 and it has no bonus tracks or anything, I would say eight years is a tad early to be rereleasing album but of course that doesn’t have a big effect on the rating. The major thing is that I don’t see this album having that much of a wide appeal, I think it is a moment of good music but it doesn’t stand out so it is quite easily forgotten. I think fans of the genre should check it out though.

The tracks are generally quite good and probably better on all accounts than the previous album I reviewed and maybe that the opening track stands slightly above the rest of them but there isn’t much to chose between them. I think this is a good album, but not a very memorable album but as a while of entertainment it is rather good even though I doubt it will be remembered as one of the greats. Fans of gothic metal should check it out though, if you are one of those you might have something to really like here.

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