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Finland has been, in my opinion, the best exporter of great melodic metal in the last years along with Italy. From the cold forest of the north we have witnessed Children of Bodom, Nightwish, along many others melodic metal bands. Now their latest offering is Entwined. "Gone" is the second releases from Entwine, a very young and promising melodic gothic metal band. In this second album they have a new singer (Mika Taurinien) that is miles better than the one they had on their debut (Pasi Willman). His voice is clear, strong and fits perfectly their musical style.

This band plays a very melodic kind of gothic metal that will appeal to fans of bands like Lacuna Coil, Sentenced, To Die For, Paradise Lost, among others. The guitar riffing is very catchy, full of great melodies and somewhat heavy with very good guitar solos, something that is not too common to find in gothic metal bands. Two key points about this band are that they use the keyboards in a very proficient way: they add it when it is necessary, leaving the guitars to do the real melody. Second point is that they avoid the overused female vocals. I don’t have anything against female vocals, but we must admit that this field is a bit saturated nowadays. Also the vocals are crystal clear, not a single death growl in the whole album. Album opener "Losing the Ground" is pure melodic riffing giving you a taster of what will come later.

The album follows with great melodic riffing again on "Snow white Suicide". Third track "Closer"is just pure melancholia. A slow song with a great melodic line. On fourth track, "New Dawn" we can hear again that melodic riffing with a very catchy chorus that will remain in your mind after the initial listen. When you reach the seventh track, "Thru the Darkness" you will be more than satisfied, but this track will annihilate you with the melodies (yes, again), emotional chorus and the mix of a violin with the keyboard that will make your jaw drop down. All of this with a killer guitar solo with the keyboard and violin backing up. So, people this is a very talented band with an excellent release and last but not least with a killer sound out of a superb production . Oh, by the way... did I mention that this CD rocks?