Angelzoom - Angelzoom
|
|
Turn the Sky* |
| Genre | New Age |
Claudia Uhle
|
Vocals
|
| Tracks | 15 |
-
|
Guitar
|
| Runningtime | 54 Min. |
-
|
Guitar
|
| Label | Nuclear Blast |
-
|
Bass
|
| Release | 04 Oct. 2004 |
-
|
Drums
|
| Country | Germany |
-
|
Keyboards
|
| Similar artists | Enya, Tori Amos | ||
Let me just start with saying that I might not be the right person to review this album, and furthermore Metal Covenant isn't the right place for this kind of music, but since it is released on Nuclear Blast it deserves to be mentioned. And why this is signed to Nuclear Blast I just cant understand. This isn't metal, it is far from it, there isn't a freaking guitar to be found anywhere. And hardly any drums either for that matter. Angelzoom is a solo project from Claudia Uhle that normally is to be found in a German pop group named X-perience. She has taken help from Bernd Wendlandt with the music and the production, and there are other guests appearing on the album, where finnish cello stranglers in Apocalyptica are among those to mention.
It starts slowly and beautiful as the music embraces you with its soft approach, and that goes for practically every song on the album. Soft emotional music that is perfectly suitable as relaxation music as it blends new age, ambient and electro kinds of elements. Claudia has an angelic voice, with a fragile sound and even if it is a bit colourless, it is nevertheless beautiful and I find similarities with both Enya as well as Tori Amos. The music of Angelzoom has the similar vulnerability that can be found in Tori Amos music, but is more packed in an Enya ambience with soft and sweeping musical landscapes. The music, that is made by Bernd Wendlandt, also resembles Vangelis at times - slow and dreamy music that floats on and by, and it reminds me of the album Voices from Vangelis.
It is not all bad, it has some nice melodies and the vulnerable voice makes it a bit special, but the only problem I have with this soft, or very soft electronic music from Angelzoom is that I have had enough after listening to just two or maybe three tracks. The material isn't strong enough and when I'm listening to Enya or Vangelis it usually takes much longer before I get restless, so you can say that the song material isn't exactly the strongest.
There are two covers that I can pick out on the album, Depeche Mode's Blasphemous Rumours, which is best in its original version and not as slowed down as here and left only with sweeping keyboards supporting the vocals. And I sincerely never thought that I would live to see the day when I was to hear a cover of a Linkin Park song. But Angelzoom must have liked the idea and therefor the track Crawling appears on the album. It feels to me like an attempt to do what Tori Amos has done so greatly, to strip down and make an personal interpretation of a heavy metal track, but the difference is that Tori Amos has enough of personality to pull it of, just listen to her version of Slayer's Raining Blood. Angelzoom does not possess these strengths, and therefor her version actually gets more boring than the original Linkin Park version.
The music also sometimes sounds as it was to be music
for motion pictures, and with the last track you actually have one.
Peace Of Mind is one of the instrumental tracks on the album, and it
is due to be included in the motion picture Alone In The Dark, the same
picture as Nightwish are about to contribute with a track to.
|
Production
|
Vocals
|
Compositions
|
|
7 |
7 |
3 |
|
Summary
|
||
|
4 chalices of 10 - Thomas |
||
Related links: