Evenoire – Vitriol (2012)

Making its way from Italy, today we have Evenoire’s debut full-length release titled “Vitriol”. Featuring a Gothic Metal sound with some Folk elements, Evenoire manages to sound a little bit different than ‘traditional bands’ giving them a small edge over the competition. With 9 tracks of music, “Vitriol” is a very solid debut effort that while having some minor issues, shows that the band is ready to be heard.

With a very ethereal opening track titled “Vitriol”, the band sets a very lush fantasy-like atmosphere that generates high expectations for this release. This is nicely continued with the very classically inspired “Days of the Blackbird”. The band’s singer Elisa "Lisy" Stefanoni has a very sweet voice that has that natural retro sound at times, when bands had regular singers on not extremely trained ones, but she can also do all the classical stuff very graciously.

The music is direct and not overly adorned by extreme use of keyboards; instead the band uses flutes and a more Metal approach relying on the use of guitars and well-crafted drums. The riffing at times is very simple like on “Misleading Paradise”, but it gets the job done and sounds very good. The very emotional “Forever Gone” is our favorite track in this release and the singing in this song reminds us a lot of Marcela Bovio from Stream of Passion and her excellent vocal melodies. By this point, we have notices the swishing sound on the drums, that is probably a studio FX, but for us it sounds wobbly.

The acoustic “The Prayer” is a nice interlude track that showcases Elisa’s vocals even more, and nicely changes the pace before the excellent “Girl by the Lake”. This song is by far the most traditional Gothic Metal track in this release, bringing memories of bands like Xandria and Visions of Atlantis. The folk track “Minstrel of Dolomites” shows a different side of the band, but it is too abruptly placed in the album that feels a bit disconnected from the rest of the tracks. This song also gives a bit of an Eluveitie edge to the band’s sound, but considerably less repetitive and more natural flowing.

“Alchimia” and “Wise King” nicely wind down this release with a very effective mixture of Gothic Metal with some Folk elements and an overall very melodic and emotional feel to the songs. As we have seen in this release, Evenoire is ready for the spotlight and hopefully “Vitriol” gets the noticed. The band’s ability to combine melancholic Gothic Metal moments with very lush vocal melodies and Folk elements is very original and once they have matured more as musicians, they will be an excellent band. If you are looking for a female-fronted band that differs a bit from the norm, give Evenoire a chance.

Release: March 26th, 2012

Country: Italy