• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Venera is the second album from New Jersey's Everdawn, a symphonic metal band that if you didn't know they were from the United States, you'd almost certainly assume were European. I guess it isn't too hard to understand considering keyboardist Boris Zaks and singer Alina Gavrilenko are originally from Russia. Musically, Everdawn plays the kind of bombastic, symphonic power metal that causes fans to uncontrollably sing along to while jamming their air instrument of choice. Like their debut, Venera is chock full of catchy hooks, lush keys, and neo-classical guitars, all executed at a very high level. If you are a fan of this genre, you're sure to be singing the choruses to "Century Black," "Silver Lining," and "Northern Star" from the get-go. Speaking of singing, as I said in my review of Cleopatra, Everdawn's debut, Gavrilenko is a find. A unicorn possessing a voice that seamlessly blends operatic range with traditional metal singing in a way few others can, she is a delight to listen to. Venera has a few, minor faults, specifically the songwriting gets a little stale towards the middle of the record and at 62+ minutes, it's a bit long especially when there are songs that could have been left off and not impacted the overall listening experience. Most of those niggles pale in comparison to the album's high points. Everdawn is a new force within the female-fronted symphonic metal scene and should be included in the collections of all fans of Nightwish, Xandria, Edenbridge, etc.