Evenoir – Vitriol

“Vitriol” is the debut album from Italian band Evenoir.  Formed in 2007, they released an EP at the end of 2008, and are now finally releasing their first album over three years later.  The band play gothic/symphonic metal with folk or medieval influences, and the highlight of their sound has to be the beautiful voice of singer Lisy Stefanoni.

The album opens with an orchestral instrumental track, “Vitriol”.  I was slightly disappointed by this one – it sounds lovely, but it just seems to be lacking some of the richness and power that I’d expected from the music – I’m guessing this is down to the cost – to hire a full orchestra would have been very expensive.  Despite the lack of richness and power it’s still a lovely piece of music and a good introduction, but I would love to hear it played by a full orchestra to really make it sound special.

The album then kicks up a notch in terms of power with the first song – “Days of the blackbird”.  The vocals in this song are stunning – Lisy has a fantastic voice and it’s used to full effect here.  There’s plenty of power in the music from the drums and guitars, and a flute adds a folk feel to it.  Although at one point there are some male growling vocals, I’m glad the band limited it to one small part of the song rather than doing the whole thing in the commonly used “beauty and the beast” style, with the female clean vocals being complemented by male growling vocals. An excellent song to kick the album off.

“Misleading paradise” starts with a long instrumental section, with the flute being used once agan to give the folk feel to the music.  There is a special guest appearance by German soprano Gaby Koss (Haggard, Equilibrium, Nota Profana), so with two great singers you know the vocals on this track are going to be good, and they really are.

The rest of the album is equally strong – this is an album that’s going to appeal to a lot of fans of female fronted gothic or symphonic metal bands.

A great album.  8.5/10

Vitriol will be released on 26th March 2012 via Scarlet records.

Evenoire are:

Lisy Stefanoni: voice & flute
Marco Binotto: bass
Alessandro Gervasi: guitar
Toshiro Brunelli: guitar
Daniele Foroni: drums

Track listing:

1. Vitriol
2. Days of the blackbird
3. Misleading paradise
4. Forever gone
5. The prayer
6. Girls by the lake
7. Minstrel of Dolomites
8. Alchemia
9. Wise king