Alerion are a young band from the Dutch province of Utrecht. They combine female gothic / rock vocals with heavily distorted guitars. Alerion was founded in 2005 and started to slowly write their own material. After some changes in the line-up, the band was ready to put their demo Fledgling out in August 2007.

The sound is quite good for a self-produced demo, although the production could use some polishing on the guitars and drums. The song structures are interesting; fairly simple, yet surprisingly melodic and challenging sometimes.

The thing that surprised me were the vocals. The female vocals don’t sound like your standard gothic squeaking, which is good. Because pure gothic, that’s been done before. This singer has a voice like the one we know of another Dutch gothic rock act, namely Autumn. Although pleasant to hear and with some nice melodies, there were times where I wasn’t exactly sure what to think of the tone that was chosen.

All in all, Alerion is a promising band. There’s creativity and a lot of energy behind these people. That’s why they deserve to be heard. To anyone who wants to hear a not-overly-done-and-polished-record from a young, talented band, check this one out.