Eight an a half minute. That's how long the first song of this three-track EP lasts. And although that may be a good thing in certain genres, I don't think it has been executed the right way on this effort. Because besides the heavy parts that include vocals, there's way too much space left for semi-entertaining slow parts without vocals. And to be honest those parts lack the power to keep me focused on the music. All in all I don't consider 'Total War' to be that much of a treat.

 

So is 'Crystal Heart' going to be the highlight of this promo? At the beginning you might think of a second dull song in a row but fortunately this song has more power in it. It's more up-tempo and the vocals are present throughout the entire song. Though I'm not too great a fan of the vocals, they do fit in with the music. I mean, the vocals don't necessarily suck, I just think that vocalist Francesco Amerisa misses the power to convince me of his capabilities. It's a bit flat and therefore doesn't really surprise me except for some screaming at the end of the song. On to the next song then!

 

'Winter's Funeral' again starts with a kind of relaxing intro. Why not pump up the volume and blow me the fuck away from my speakers dudes? Give us some more power! This way it tends to sound like doom metal instead of the melodic death with goth, thrash and heavy metal influences. Again this is quite a long song and again it's not capable of convincing me of the strengths of this band. Too bad!

 

All in all I wouldn't immediately recommend this band to quit playing but in my opinion they should really add some more entertaining elements on their next release to keep things interesting. Yes, they vary a lot between different styles of metal but for now it lacks the power to convince in both the vocal and the musical sections.