• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Hailing from Sweden, Amaran is a new band that aims to take the concept of metal into the 21st century. That's quite a statement to make and I guess critics and fans will probably be the judge of that. It's good to hear a Swedish band that is not just another Gothenburg clone. The first thing that struck me on this promo CD are the vocals, very melodic, so melodic in fact that they are the type of vocals we usually hear in "popular" music rather than metal. Now mix those with crunching, aggressive guitars and you get a very interesting sound. Amaran pulls this off very nicely. Female vocalist Johanna De Pierre has great control of her voice, definitely nothing to complain about in that department! The vocals also blend in well with the music. I guess I could categorize the music as melodic heavy metal with an aggressive touch.

Not much to complain about except maybe the production on the first track which sounds a little bit messy at first, especially the guitars, and the vocal parts are a bit thin-sounding at times. Things get better after a couple of minutes.

I wouldn't go as far as say that Amaran break any new ground with this demo, but they are sure good at what they do. 15 minutes is just enough to make you crave for more of this stuff. Let's hope for a full length in the near future. Fans of hard rock, heavy and power metal will most likely like this.