adg211288 Black is the Colour (2013) is the second album by German power metal act Arven. The band, which is almost entirely female with the exception of drummer Till Felden, made a great impression on me with their debut offering Music of Light (2011), on which they offered up a decidedly non-typical take on the power, folk and symphonic metal genres. In other words I've been quite eager to hear how they'd follow the album up. Black is the Colour features a guest vocal performance from Stefan Schmidt (Van Canto, Heavatar) on the song The One for Me. He also appeared on Music of Light as part of the choir (a role also assumed here) but this time around he gets a duet with Arven’s leading lady Carina Hanselmann.

For their second album Arven have kept all the recognisable elements from Music of Light in place, but they've changed the amounts in which those elements are used during the album. Although power metal tends to crop up a lot over the course of the album's ten tracks Arven are never as speed obsessed as the most pure of artists from the genre, often preferring to take a more mid-paced approach, but still highly melodic yet riff driven. The keyboards played by Lena Yatsula are continually present but aren't used to over-power the guitars although there are definitely some instances where Lena's in the control of the music, particularly the piano led parts like ballad All I Got or when the band go full on symphonic metal, something which is surprisingly rare considering the band is probably most associated with the genre. Still towards the end of the album there's some really powerful symphonic work to be had with Fireside Stories and My Fall.

Elsewhere the folk elements of Arven's music have seen a reduction. Music of Light could easily be considered a folk metal album insomuch as it was a power metal one but on Black is the Colour they're regulated to just a couple of tracks, mostly notably the lively instrumental Cercle d'emeraude. Just like the debut though the band still has progressive twists to the music, particularly during The One for Me. Finally Carina Hanselmann will steal the show with some angelic vocals that never fail to captivate me.

Black is the Colour is an easy release to be completely charmed by but a hard one to get a proper understanding of. There's really no single genre term applicable than you can say fits the album. But that’s really what I like most about Arven’s music. Even with just the two albums under their belt they’ve shown themselves to be unpredictable, and unwilling to be kept in check by traditional genre restraints, leaving the only real unifying factor of their music being their sense for melody. And they certainly have the songs to go with the sound. Much as I loved their debut I think Arven have noticeably improved on the writing front. The album flows extremely well and as such has inspired many repeat listens in me. It’s one of those releases where there’s really not any point singling out any choice tracks, as everything is on the same level. The top level I might add. Black is the Colour is a spectacular release of melodic metal, as well as one of the best releases of the year. What Music of Light hinted was possible, Black is the Colour achieves. The first of what will hopefully be many masterpieces for Arven.

99/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/arven--black-is-the-colour.aspx)

adg211288 Music of Light is the debut full-length album from German metal act Arven. The almost entirely female band (except drummer Till Felden) dubs their music as simply melodic metal, and it’s not hard to hear why on Music of Light with the number of influences that are pulled into the band’s sound which ultimately results in an eclectic mix of power metal, folk metal and symphonic metal, with even a few flairs into progressive territory. Music of Light was released in 2011.

On paper Arven may well come across as just another symphonic act with a classical trained female vocalist, and it would be easy to pass over them since on paper they have the typical setup for such an act. Carina Hanselmann’s vocals are melodic, can be operatic, and would definitely fit the template for a typical symphonic metal act but her vocals are actually where any similarities Arven has to acts such as Nightwish or Epica end. Even though the music is still symphonic, it doesn’t fit the typical mould for the style because the power metal inclined riffs of Anastasia Schmidt and Ines Thomé are generally the focal point of the music, along with common but not constant use of folk melodies, that is to say they don’t include the folk on every single track on the album, making Music of Light much more the melodic power metal orientated release than anything else. The folk is pretty common here all the same, and it spices up the music a lot when used, especially since it is coupled with the excellent piano playing of Lena Yatsula which gives off quite the medieval sounding mood to Arven’s music, which is something which is heard straight away with the opening title track. It’s the piano that often strikes me as the real key ingredient here actually. While there is also some more traditional symphonic stuff on the album, the piano is the much more common choice on the keys front, and it adds an interesting layer to the power metal sound, especially in tracks such as Dark Red Desire.

Because of all this Arven’s style is difficult to place into any one genre of metal and gives the band more of their own identity, which is of course a good thing in a metal scene where acts with female vocalists have become quite a big thing and the amount of acts that either don’t bring anything new to the table or go down far too commercial routes are becoming way too common. Music of Light sounds not only fresh and exciting, but is also a high quality debut album. All six of the musicians (which also includes the as yet unmentioned bassist Lisa Geiß) prove skilled at their instruments and there isn’t a track on the album that is any weaker than the rest.

The folk melodies in particular are really great, sometimes to the point that I wished they were used in all of the tracks, because pieces such as Music of Light and Raise Your Cups really stand out as the album’s highlights, though I do like the fact that the album has a high level of variety to it by not sticking to any particular tried and tested formula. You could put down my desire for folk dominance as a personal preference really, since the tracks lighter on the folk are just as good, and each composition is able to assert its own identity within the album pretty quickly. At one end of the spectrum you have the seven minute My Dear Friend, which represents the album’s ballad, and at the other end there are more guitar driven power metal fuelled tracks such as World of Hatred, another highlight of the album.

This debut album proves that Arven has a lot to offer the metal world, and I highly advise fans of power, folk, symphonic and even progressive metal to give them a chance. It has a few very minor flaws to be fair, most notably I can’t help wondering how much more powerful the music would sound if they cracked up the intensity of their riffs a bit more in a couple of places, but otherwise Arven’s debut delivers. The field of melodic metal has a strong new competitor in Arven.

9.1/10

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)