Godyva - In Good And Evil

Published Dec. 22 2006

*=Staff's pick	Dreams Of A Child* Lovable Sin In Good And Evil* Soul Desert Intimate Flame Flower Purified Cold Aisthesis Light At Last! Broken Angel Blue Shadows

Genre	Gothic Metal	Lady Godyva	Vocals
Tracks	12	Frahn	Guitar
Runningtime	62 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Sorcery Studios	Nick Barah	Bass
Release	06 June 2006	Enyo	Drums
Country	Italy	Botys Beezart	Keyboard
Similar artists	Lacuna Coil

You might have heard about the historically famous woman Lady Godiva who rode naked on a horse through Coventry in England to get her wishes through. Time can only tell if the similarly named Italian goth band Godyva will have an impact on history as powerful as that, but if Godyva carry on like they mostly do on their debut album In Good And Evil, I probably wouldn't bet on it.

Godyva have been marketed as the up-and-coming goth band that eventually will take over from their countrymen in Lacuna Coil, and while Cristina Scabbia & Co probably won't have anything to worry about during the upcoming years, I understand the comparison. Lady Godyva has a capable voice that resembles Scabbia's slightly, but it gets grating and shallow in the long run. During the opener Dreams Of A Child it sounds like she's imitating the mesmerizing artist Björk, a path she should choose more often instead of the not-so-impressive Tarja Turunen-impersonations found on tracks like Intimate and Flame Flower.

The title track has a great melody that raises the expectations for the rest of the album, but said expectations are sadly let down when In Good And Evil turns out to be a collection of songs that sound like something that Lacuna Coil rejected for their latest album Karmacode. If you take into account that that album didn't exactly made me somersault with joy, you can probably figure out the rest on your own. The sound is very similar to Lacuna Coil's, with Oriental and electronic elements as well as nu metal-guitars that sound so thin that it makes me wonder who handled the production.

In Good And Evil was released on the 6th of June this year, which means that the particular date was 060606 (the number of the beast…). If Satan expected something truly evil to be released in his honour, I suspect he was mighty disappointed with this highly mediocre album.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
5	6	4

Summary
4 chalices of 10 - Niklas