Review: GRAVESHADOW – Ambition’s Price

GRAVESHADOW Ambition’s Price
M-Theory Audio

To label Graveshadow‘s music just as Symphonic Metal is indeed a grave injustice to the band. Graveshadow has various bits of many genres incorporated with Symphonic Metal it its musical style. There is obvious influences from Heavy Metal, Gothic, Power, Thrash even some Melo-death in the music of Graveshadow. And the forefront of the band is the powerful vocal of Heather Michele, who herself has a varied range in her vocals as well.

The music on offer by Graveshadow in their latest offering follows the same formula they used in their previous outing. A mixer of guitars and keyboards crating melody which complements the vocal of Heather, who delivers both the beauty and the beast with her melodic singing intermixed with passionate growls. While the musicians never try anything out of the ordinary they execute their formula very diligently and make their skills shine at often. But there is just too much focus on the vocal of Heather at times rather making the musical elements seem bland and unfocused at times as well.

As apparent from my previous discussion, that Graveshadow‘s music is focused on the amazing vocal performance of Heather. And she is a rather force to be reckoned with when she is in her groove. Her charismatic transition from clean, passionate singing to energetic, angry growls is one of the highlights for me. William Lloyd Walker and Aaron Robitsch does guitarworks which seems to me is rather lacking in memorability. While there are a few enjoyable riffs, there is a distinct lack of good solos throughout the album.  The bassist and drummer are also nothing to write home about, as the whole ensemble seems to be focused on highlighting the vocal works of Heather.

Highlights from the songs for me were ‘Doorway to Heaven’, ‘Widow and the Raven’, ‘Hero of Time’ and ‘Warchief’. But if you as a listener listen to the first few songs you will be quite sure of what to expect and also of the fact that if the style is something that caters to your taste.

For me this one was a mixed bag which, despite many flows is certainly an above average album. Graveshadow certainly have room for improvements and could be a force to be reckoned with, if only there are just a few tweaks.