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You'll be forgiven for never having heard of Spaniards Waldheim before, but once the Nuclear Blast or Century Media supremos get to hear of these guys, everyone will most certainly have heard of them, as the style of music they've produced on this, their debut album, is as proficient, professional, catchy and melodic as any of the current big league metal label's darlings.

Marrying rich melody-driven Death Metal with darkly Gothic overtones is the dish of the day for Waldheim, with the Death Metal vocals even having an accessible edge of good diction to them (the guy reminds me of a cross between ex-Cryptopsy vocalist Mike DiSalvo and Kataklysm's Maurizio Iacono at times). There's also a good display of operatic female vocal work throughout the album which adds to the Gothic nuances alongside the sweeping keyboard arrangement that lay softly over the Dark Tranquility-like guitar bombast. Playing at a mainly mid-tempo pace suits Waldheim down to the ground, allowing their melodies to progress clearly from both the guitars and synthesizers, with the clean operatic vocals layering great counterpoint melodies here and there to add an extra je ne sais quoi to the proceedings.

Although it's got a definite commercially minded edge in the music (and my personal tastes tend to rest more on the side of the filthiest of underground arse-tearers) I can't re-iterate enough just how professional this is for a debut release. Even with the harsher male vocals, the perfect balance of the massive Lacuna Coil-like choruses and the harder melo-death chugging edge of the likes of Arch Enemy (all of which is wrapped in a top quality production job that'd make Andy Sneap weep) just proves that these guys have the ability to really push for the stars. Judging by the material they have here, it wouldn't surprise me to see them achieve their dreams sooner rather than later.