• New Music Reviews
• |
• Archives
• |
• News
• |
• Submissions
• |
• About
• |
• 
• |
• 

March 2023

• RPWL: Crime Scene
• Transworld Identity: Seven Worlds
• Stormwarning: Stormwarning
• Phantom Elite: Blue Blood
• Narnia: Ghost Town
• Redemption: I Am The Storm
• Cross Country Driver: The New Truth
• The Banishment: Machine And Bone
• Seventh Crystal: Wonderland
• Demons Down: I Stand

February 2023

• Air Raid: Fatal Encounter
• Robin McAuley: Alive
• Creye: III - Weightless
• All My Shadows: Eerie Monsters
• First Signal: Face Your Fears
• Gabrielle de Val: Kiss In A Dragon Night
• We Came From Space: Overlords
• T3nors: Naked Soul
• Wig Wam: Out Of The Dark
• Khymera: Hold Your Ground
• Infinite & Divine: Ascendancy
• eMolecule: The Architect

January 2023

• Girish & The Chronicles: Back On Earth (Reissue)
• Arctic Rain: Unity
• Electric Mob: 2 Make U Cry & Dance
• Crowne: Operation Phoenix
• Ronnie Romero: Raised On Heavy Radio
• Ten: Something Wicked This Way Comes
• Riverside: ID.Entity
• Issa: Lights Of Japan
• Heroes And Monsters: Heroes And Monsters
• Big City: Sunwind Sails

December 2022

• NY Fury: I Want It All
• Tommy DeCarlo: Dancing In The Moonlight
• Tarmat: Out Of The Blue
• Scream Maker: Bloodking
• Sabu: Banshee
• Rob Moratti: Epical
• Nevena: Nevena
• Landfall: Elevate
• After Lapse: Face The Storm

[ More Music Reviews ]

Kilmara: Love Songs and Other Nightmares

Melodic/Heavy/Power Metal

3.5/5.0

Website Facebook
Sony Music
Words by Craig Hartranft,  19.06.2014

I'm guessing most metalheads will be distracted when listening to Kilmara's third album Love Songs and Other Nightmares, focusing more on the smokin' hot chick on the cover, than upon the music within. They're likely thinking, 'Does she have a Facebook page, and more pictures.' I guess some mention should be made of the music within.

Kilmara: take a break.

A quick heads up: you can skip over the first song, Fantasy. Kilmara has some asshat delivering some death vocals. Totally unnecessary. What follows is some basic melodic heavy and power metal, probably leaning more to the former than the latter. Several elements are quite notable: the thick barrage of riffage that swells most every song, the thick drumming, and the sharp guitar leads.

Strangely enough, these don't crush the melody inherent in the song or vocal arrangements. Also, surprisingly, the mix keeps Christian Wolfgang Kohl's vocals above and clear in most every song. A good example is Nothing to Me, perhaps the heaviest and hard charging song here. (It's also a reflection of the loose theme across the album, problems of love, relationships, and addictions.) While the entirety of the album is basically muscle-bound, steroid-injected metal, groove and accessibility is not lost either. Songs like The Devil's Eye, The Break Up, Nothing to Me, and Usual Strangers have some groove and hooks in both arrangements and refrains. However, all this presents a certain dilemma: the formula for most every song, based on the aforementioned elements, is pretty darn predictable. The rare exception is the acoustic guitar at the beginning of Believe. But this merely begets the adage, 'beware of songs that start low and slow,' as Believe pummels with the rest. If you're looking for a heavy metal riff monster, yet with melody and stinging guitars, Kilmara's Love Songs and Other Nightmares is worth your time. Now go back to looking at the girl on the cover. Maybe I should give the album a higher score just for presence.

Kilmara - Cold Rain

If you're looking for a heavy metal riff monster, yet with melody and stinging guitars, Kilmara's Love Songs and Other Nightmares is worth your time.

Alphabetical Index

Arriving from Finland, the origins of Transworld Identity come from Mila Bosa, a singer in a cover band. But it wasn't enough. She aspired to write and perform original songs, forming Transworld Identity ... [ Read More ]