martindavey87
‘Art in Exile’ is the self-titled debut release by the Australian gothic rockers of the same name. It’s one of those CD’s that you pick up in the bargain bin (I literally did, in Germany, for 50 cents!), and then have in your collection, forever wondering why you still have it despite not liking it.
It’s kind of gothic metal, kind of progressive at times, kind of death metal, mostly boring. The guitar riffs aren’t very interesting, and the gloomy keyboards don’t really add much. There are one or two moments where the music is alright, especially the intro of opening track ‘Magnetism’, which sounded intriguing for all of 45 seconds, until vocalist Mel Bulian starts screaming away. She sounds a bit like Dani Filth, but I don’t really care about Dani Filth. Her clean vocals are nice, and the band could have had a much better sound if they’d taken that approach, but all her screeching is hard to listen to, and certainly not for me.
Since this band have only released one album (at the time of writing this review, anyway), I’m guessing there’s not much demand for a gothic metal scene in Australia? Who knows? Either way, there’s a reason this was in the bargain bin...