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Despite the watered-down concept of gothic metal there are still a few bands who manage to strike the world with surprise by sounding unlike any previously unveiled acts. One of these are Finland's Vanguard, a band created in the capital of Helsinki in 1999, at that time consisting of four musicians. Today the orchestra have expanded into a seven-piece, including a celloist and a pianist who add quite a lot to the overall sound of Vanguard. The piano intros of the two opening songs "Asylum" and "Forgive" are very nice indeed. If you wish to compare Vanguard to any existing bands within the genre I would say they are closest to the early Trail Of Tears sound but less gothic and more metal sounding. The male growling / female soprano dual vocals will not win any originality contests but they work fairly well in most of the songs. Vanguard are a young promising band but the material found here on their debut album is a little bit uneven and not as coherent as I would have wished it to be. They are off to a good start and hopefully the future holds a lot more to come for these young Fins. Stand-out tracks: "Asylum", "Forgive".
| Tracklist |
| 1. Asylum |
| 2. Forgive |
| 3. Amoricide |
| 4. Excarnation |
| 5. Ephemeral |
| 6. Bitheon |
| 7. Homecoming |
| 8. Nova |
| 9. Wurmtod |
: 44.50
| Buy other Vanguard albums |
