Seduce the Heaven – Field of Dreams

A preview of the album can be streamed from Souncloud:

SeducetheHeaven

What could be the result of anundetermined blend of six of Greece’s most skilled and  qualified musicians when they are put together in a band? Well, that can be easily summed up in three simple words and these are SEDUCE THE HEAVEN. This fairly new progressive metal band, has managed to built gradually a worthy reputation under its name by taking small but clever steps in order to establish their name in the (local) scene. In a time when female-fronted metal is almost a cliché, SEDUCE THE HEAVEN came as a breath of fresh air, mixing elements of melodic death metal and metalcore with a progressive approach, as far as the music is concerned, incorporating all those different influences and experiences that each member brought to the table into a musical manifold, competently and efficiently .

The band’s intentions are clear from the very beginning, no lenghty introductions or atmospheric passages are really needed nor used in ‘Field of Dreams’. The opener ‘Reflection’ is simply an exploding song, the guitar riffs here offer a balanced result, wavering between aggression and melody, within a constant give and take of destructive guitar parts and resonant sounds, the technical side of the band shows later on with ‘Walls of Oblivion’, fusing odd-time signatures or even tapping licks into the core of the riffs. Of course there is more to the music that technicality, dotted with outbursts of aggressive playing, underlying the ever-expressing and meaningful lyrics, a fitting combination of the opposites. The band’s mastermind Alex Flouros has come up with an utterly honest, sincere record, yet quite varied and not as easy-listening as one may assume, the listener should dedicate some time to fully comprehend what’s really going on with the instrumentation, all the different layers of music that are flowing unoticeably in the background but offer significantly as much. The riffs are sometimes really powerful, an adept combination of heavy/thrash/power and progressive metal.

The title track seems to be one of the most characteristic songs on the album, every part seems very natural and interesting. To me the biggest highlight apart from the oustanding guitar wizardry that takes place in ‘Field of Dreams’, is Elina Laivera’s vocal abilities. This young singer come literally, out of nowhere and she is doing a damn fine job, every chorus is memorable and touching, never a melody or vocal line is repeated twice, it is really obvious that Elina is fully into what she is doing. Same can be said about her lyrics as well. Marios Mizo (STILL FALLING) handles the growling vocals with ease and confidence, it is noteworthy to mention that both vocalists work as a unity offering what is best of the song, and not just accentuating one another, a perfect”beauty and beast” vocal combination . Sinnik Al has a fair amount of guitar solos as well, his exceptional work being generally pulled of with high technical skill and are well-composed (‘Walls of Oblivion’, ‘Ignorance’, ‘Helpless Mind’). SEDUCE THE HEAVEN chose to finish off the record with ‘In Close Distance’, a gloomy piano-oriented song accompanyied by Elina’s voice which is quite reminicent of older Nightwish in parts, a great way to finish off a great album.

Lastly, I want to add that SEDUCE THE HEAVEN will certainly surprise a great amount of people with their debut album, ‘Field of Dreams’ features an appropriate marriage of styles with outstanding compositions. A band that will surely gather a lot of attention around its name in the not so distant future, especially if they continue they way they started. Don’t waste any more time, enter the ‘Field of Dreams’ for this is only the beginning.

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Lefteris Kefalas.