Sunday 9 February 2014

Album Review : Tothem - Beyond The Sea

Tothem are a five piece symphonic dark rock outfit with true operatic vocals from singer Roslen. The band hail from Rome and are signed to the Canadian Maple Metal record label. They have released one EP, and Beyond The Sea is their first full length release.

I think I've summed up Tothem's style with the symphonic and operatic genre tags, the band don't stray into full blown metal, preferring a harmonic gothic sound and Roslen's high and crystal clear vocals are the very antitheses of the growling and screaming so prevalent in the metal scene today.

The highlights of what is a pretty accomplished debut outing are the initial single release, The Witch, with its sing-a-long intro and choppy guitar work and the more up-tempo opening track Run To You which alternates Roslen's best vocal work with some headbang inducing rhythms. Fight With You has a wonderful flow and feel as Tothem demonstrate some great changes in pace and timing leading up to a thundering conclusion. Tothem demonstrate their obvious musical ability throughout the album, layering and interchanging the guitars and keyboards to allow varying spates of pounding rock with gently flowing rhythmic sections highlighting the vocals. It's this understanding of pace, tempo and variation which makes almost all of the album a solid success.

If you're a fan of Nightwish or Within Temptation then there is a lot on Beyond The Sea to enjoy, a similar feel and musical style perhaps, but Roslen's operatic vocal performance really takes Tothem into a genre of their own. Welcome to Italian operatic goth, it's an enchanting place to be.

Tothem Facebook

Mapel Metal Records

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