Octavia Sperati

Winter Enclosure (Candlelight)
by Scott Hefflon

Female-fronted Gothic metal is as common as a cold, and even good bands are a dime a dozen, cuz let’s face it, a sweet voice and some plodding riffs are about all it takes. I like the genre, get bored by it quickly and use it for background music, and while there are few nice notes and a sweet melody here and there, I tune it out far more than it dazzles me. This is the band’s debut, and with Candlelight’s huge promotional push (that’s a joke: I spend more on fish food than the U.S. office spends on promotion, and I don’t even have fish), this CD is bound to not register on anyone’s radar, thus giving the band the opportunity to focus on the few really nice melodies they have and make a follow-up record worth daydreaming to.
(www.candlelightrecordsusa.com)