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Frontiers Music
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 22.07.2015
Okay. So a pattern has been established. Since the inception in 2009 drummer and producer Daniel Flores, The Murder Of My Sweet introduces a new album every three years with Beth Out Of Hell being the latest. He calls the band's sound cinematic metal, being inspired by film scores. Yeah, I know. You've heard that before. Can you say, Rhapsody Of Fire?
But let's distill this brew down to the fundamentals. Basically, TMoMS players melodic metal with an inherent and ubiquitous hard rock groove and then dresses it up in lavish orchestration. I'm guessing the latter is mostly from Flores' keyboards. Now toss in the usual smokin' hot female vocalist in Angelica Rylin and you have another female fronted symphonic metal band. So now you say, "Been there, done that." Delain. Xandria. Nightwish. Et al. Well, yeah. But there are some subtle differences to TMoMS.
Curiously, while having great range and soaring vocals, Rylin isn't one of those wildly operatic soprano divas. She comes across as more the traditional rock and metal singer, though she probably could sing in the operatic style if called upon to do so. Also, The Murder Of My Sweet, despite all the grandiose and lavish symphonic tapestry, can come off sounding more as the aforementioned melodic metal band with the rock groove. Mostly this comes from the best songs being arranged in a efficient fashion relying heavily on melody and harmony, rhythm and groove, and catchy twists in refrains. Good examples include Still, Humble Servant, and Requiem For A Ghost in the center of the album, and maybe Always The Fugitive. Otherwise, everything else here is large and expansive, that lavish symphonic portion mostly overwhelming every song. But it sounds pretty darn good. Conversely, there's a lot of it. The album plays out at nearly an hour and fifteen minutes. Considering the extravagance of the lengthy and lumbering closing number, Means To An End, and a few other plodding exercises in symphonic embellishment like Euthanasia and Poets By Default, this album could have been trimmed quite easily. Nevertheless, Beth Out Of Hell finds The Murder Of My Sweet staying the course with their symphonic and melodic metal and sounding pretty darn fine. Recommended.
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Beth Out Of Hell finds The Murder Of My Sweet staying the course with their symphonic and melodic metal and sounding pretty darn fine. Recommended.
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