Faith

For metalheads, the early to mid-2000s went down in history as a time in which the United States dominated metalcore, hardcore, and screamo while Europe dominated the death metal/black metal field as well as the power metal revival/progressive metal scene. And Europe was equally dominant when it came to goth metal; if, in the early to mid-2000s, one came across a metal band that had strong goth leanings, a definite Lacuna Coil influence, and a female lead singer with an ethereal vocal style, it wasn't necessarily a European band but was likely a European band. Germany's Eyes of Eden, in fact, fit that description to a T on their debut album, Faith. The brains behind this album is producer, guitarist, and songwriter Waldemar Sorychta, who is known for his work with Lacuna Coil, Moonspell, Despair, and Sentenced and is staunchly goth metal-oriented throughout this 45-minute CD (which was recorded from 2004-2006 and released in 2007). The basic idea of goth metal is to combine goth rock's eerie, darkly poetic sense of melody with metal's intensity and aggression, and Sorychta pulls that off enjoyably well with the help of lead singer Franziska Huth (who replaced Eyes of Eden's original lead singer, Sandra Schleret, when Schleret was unable to record with the band because of health problems), bassist Alla Fedynitch, and drummer Gas Lipstick (of H.I.M. fame). This consistently melodic effort is aggressive but never overbearing or flat-out vicious; in fact, many fans of standard goth rock (as opposed to goth metal) would probably find Faith to be quite accessible. Faith isn't the least bit groundbreaking -- a long list of similar European bands have done this type of thing -- but goth metal diehards will find it to be a nicely crafted and nicely executed, if less than distinctive, debut from Sorychta's band. ~ Alex Henderson|