When metal bands take classical music into their compositional works, they often do not work well at all. It's probably due to the lack of knowledge about the classical music, or then the two simply do not fit together in these unsuccessful compositions.

French band Waverly Lies North is one of those rare deviants who have successfully managed to alloy metal and classical music styles together. 'A Soul in the Void' is the debut release meant for promotional use, that originally came out in 2013 on Brennus Music label, but was reissued in digipak CD format next year with one additional, new song. Listening to this album made me wish that these guys would one day get a real chance to show their music to masses.

Here WLN have managed to create interesting yet not too branching songs, that carry the necessary drive and punch; they stick to mind, but if not at first few spins, except for many parts from each song. The music is not crammed with a million and one detail and turn, that no-one could ever grasp. There is enough variation in each song, even though I have to admit that at times I feel that there's a bit too much similarity between some song parts. This isn't an insurmountable hardship, but more like a wavering, distant thought screaming in a darker corner of a listener's brain.

The music here carries gothic atmosphere, nothing fluffy, but more or less eerie and ominous in essence. The band's name comes from sanatorium called Waverly Hills which is located in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, and is said to be haunted. Actually, it's thought of being one of the most haunted places around the World. The lyrical side goes hand in hand with the music. The music is semi-progressive. I wouldn't call it unique, but at least WLN have their own kind of identity. It's happens often when I spot familiar aspects from various bands. These bands are Kamelot, Symphony X, Evergrey and Vanishing Point. Yeah, more or less melodic progressive metal bands that sometimes incorporate classical music into their works. It's guitars and/or vocals creating melody, with the classical instrumentation backing them up, or other way around. The music never stalls during its 40 minutes of duration, and this quite an achievement. When there's an avalanche of operatic choirs and dark, ominous riffing, it reminds of Therion at some points (e.g. 'Cherish no Hope').

The metal side of the band is masculine. Heavy-handed riffs, robust power metal drumming and manly vocals. The vocalist, who is a trained opera singer, does sound metal as heck! Think of voices that can be heard in aforementioned bands. The range is big, from lower and darker voices to high-pitched vocals, that still are ballsy. Operatic female singing is professional. Vocally, the album is top-notch. The music and vocals flirt or are outright catchy and weave listener into the dark world of WLN. One great thing about the album is the fact, that it offers a lot to listen to, but also to discover.

The production job expose the album's origins: It has somewhat demo-quality sound. It's damn hard to hear the bass guitar here at times, because it's mostly playing with guitars, so it irksomely coalesces with them. The classical orchestration is made synthetically, probably even some of those operatic choirs. Generally this sounds like a very good demo, if you will, better than a lot of stuff released as full-length albums. This reissue features well fitting artwork and the lyrics are printed.

I really do wish that these guys would get that big chance. However, in that lies a double-edged sword: Think about Cradle Of Filth's big production with choirs and orchestra on 'Damnation and a Day' (2003), and there are many other bad examples for sure! Good, rolling compositions are a tough task to achieve in that kind of situation. It's easy to get way too pompous. Anyway, 'A Soul in the Void' might have been designed only as a demo recording, but it is a fine piece of symphonic metal! Any song suggestions for checking out the band and the album? Every single one of them!!! Well, there's a music video for the new song 'Aria Nocturna'. That's a good place to start for sure.

Rating: 8- (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
05/26/2015 17:32