ANDEM

moscow's AnDeM have presented their debut album to the listener, titled "Pendulum of Life." The press release promises melodic metal with the gentle voice of vocalist Yuliana Savchenko and instantly memorable melodies. So what do we actually have? The band plays melodic power metal. Keyboard backing is ubiquitous and pleasant — hardly a single song goes without it. The guitar tone, in its rhythm part, is dense and fits the vocalist's voice and the thematic content of the songs rather well. Solos appear in fairly generous numbers but are nothing special, though perfectly listenable. I have minor complaints about the drum sound — in my view it lacks accentuation. On several tracks, bassist Evgeny Yakovlev delivers a decent scream-growl that slightly shades the album's atmosphere. The melodicism of the compositions is at a high level — while listening, the ear was pleasantly delighted by the twists and turns of the music. The band was quite naturally compared right away to Epica and Within Temptation. In reality, there isn't much basis for this, since in terms of the origins of their melodic component, AnDeM aren't close to either the former or the latter. Plus there's a huge difference in the power of the vocalists. With all due respect to Yuliana's perfectly decent voice, she's a long way from Simone and Sharon, both in range and in charisma. As a plus, let's also note the excellent recording quality — the album's mastering was done at the German studio The Red Room by Mr. Andy Horn, whose credits include work with such acts as KING DIAMOND, Darkseed, Edenbridge, Cornerstone, and others. To summarize, "Pendulum of Life" is a solid, quite pleasant, and highly melodic album that, thanks in part to the vocalist's voice, will appeal to a fairly large number of fans of music that isn't too heavy but is nonetheless engaging.