REGARDLESS OF ME - Black Flowers Blossom (Sealed) (CD)

"Fans of female fronted metal bands or those who want to hear something else will surely enjoy this. This Italian band saw the light in 2007 and releases their fourth album with 'Black Flowers Blossom' with modern metal thickly dotted with electro, techno and trance influences. That is why they have christened themselves as trance metal. On the first albums they still went in the direction of death. Vocalist Arys Noir has taken on a more prominent role over the years and her powerful, enthusiastic sounding vocals dominate. Here and there in the background you can hear some masculine vocals but actually this is negligible. Remarkable is that a lot of songs have the same structure. A somewhat atmospheric opening after which solid riffs and almost mechanical sounding drums take over. Ever since drummer Foelie Torresani left the band, the last couple of years it has been coming and going. At the moment Mantia Rubino is supposed to be sitting behind the drum chair and he does this so tight and fast that you soon have to think of a drum computer. After the solid outing Arys joins the band and goes more towards gothic metal. Still, there's a lot of techno and other related pieces present as well. Cassiopeia' is instrumental and there is not much metal left to be seen here. It is more about a progressive space atmosphere. My personal favorites are 'Again' and 'My Bloody Eyes'. But closing 'We Falls' where both industrial and new wave influences can be heard, proves that the band can't do their thing in metal alone. Still, there are some beauty flaws present. Arys is a bit exuberant at times and here and there she sometimes misses the right note. Also the recording quality sounds a bit poor. And let this kind of music sound best with a flawless sound. But fans of female fronted metal bands or those who want to hear something else, will surely enjoy this.