Penumbra - Seclusion

*=Staff's pick	Tragical Memories* Cursed Destiny Seclusion* The Prophetess* Hope Crimson Tail Conception Enclosed

Genre	Gothic Metal	Anita Covelli, Jarlaath	Vocals
Tracks	8	Neo	Guitar
Runningtime	45 Min.	Dorian	Guitar
Label	Season Of Mist	Agone	Bass
Release	05 Nov. 2003	Arathelis	Drums
Country	France	Zoltan	Keyboards
Similar artists	Epica, Tristania

Gothic metal with an ingredient that differs Penumbra from most other metal bands, or probably every other band since they are the only band I know that includes the instrument oboe in their line-up
Oboe is a wooden wind instrument that is used in orchestras and has a kind of nasal sound, to compare it with the sound of bagpipes is perhaps not a fair comparison but it gives you an idea about how it sounds.

Penumbra blends no less than three different types of vocals from their two vocalists, the male one, Jarlaath sings with a darker but soft voice when he is not singing with a growling voice. The growls are decent and suits the music rather well even if it tends to sound a bit strained most of the time.
Second vocalist Anita Covelli does not sing with a mezzo-soprano voice as one could expect when you hold in mind that Penumbra has many similarities in their music with Dutch band Epica, instead she has a clear and beautiful voice with a feeling of sadness and melancholy. So far so good, but all the three has in common the lack of power, there is not enough strength or any real oomph in their voices and it gets indifferent.

If the vocals lacks in power there is enough of that in the music, at least with the first half on the album. The ambience on Seclusion holds the album together and even if it the music can get hard and heavy the feeling that comes out is of the warm and embracing kind, somewhat similar to what can be heard from Cradle Of Filth, although with a softer approach in the music. When the music is orchestrated and there is parts with an choir that is of the epic sort mixed with growls and female vocals you can hear the closeness to Epica and further more the music from Tristania.

The use of the oboe is carefully done and comes to its fully right with the title track Seclusion, the riffing guitars carries the song forward as the oboe is beautifully replacing what would normally be a guitar-line. It is actually really great to hear the oboe playing soloparts and melodylines instead of a guitar, and that is probably what rescues Penumbra from being just another Goth-band when its done so tastefully and is not overdone at any place. The track Seclusion has another problem, it does not feel complete, as goes for many tracks that could have been developed more, even if there are variations in the music it feels like there is a part missing here and there.

The album is well arranged and the parts where the growls has a short verse followed by a short verse from the choir and it is alternated backed by heavy guitars and drums it becomes great.
The Prophetess with strong oriental influences holds most of the elements that are used by Penumbra and together with the title track those two makes the most lasting impression.
Then it gets a bit too much of the same, the songs should have been longer and even if they are varied they get repeated in the end, the first half is good and sometimes really great while the later half has a slower pace and feels mostly as repetitions and the interest gets cooled off the further the albums ticks away.

Penumbra is a band that in likeness with me many has probably overlooked and missed, but they are worth to check out, but not much more since you can get this kind of music from many bands these days, and there are many in this genre that is better but on the other hand there far more that are worse.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	6	5

Summary
5,5 chalices of 10 - Thomas