Apolinara - Shadows & Signs Review

It’s been quite a while I’ve saying here that Symphonic Metal is the modern facete of the good old Heavy Pop or Light Metal as Deena Weinstein used to call it. I’ve been reviewing bands here that confirm mine proposition. Bands as Metalite and Battle Beast, just to quote a few that I reviewed here in the recent past, are the best examples of how to make an approach with these lighter versions of Metal music. Their combination of keyboards and a female vocalist plus some slight versions of a symphonic music is conquering the hearts of many metalheads throughout this sad and lonely and pathetic little world. The bands dose those features as they please but there is some commom ground among them. The pop features are some of them. Apolinara with “Shadows & Signs” follow this way for the best and for the worst and, of course, for the hate of many metallers that think those bands are only for people who don’t understand music at all. This kind of view couldn’t be more wrong. As I said before, to many metalheads they are a kind of point of entrance to Metal music. It’s the way many were introduced to the woorld of Heavy Metal.

Ok. it’s true that vocalist Apolinara isn’t properly a soprano singer nor she uses the symphonic singing techniques all the time. On the opposite, most of the time she sings with her clean voice. It’s also true that Apolinara – now the band – doesn’t use the Symphonic features all the time. They are subtle here in “Shadows & Signs” as the fan may notice even though the band has in its line-up a cello and a violin plus the guest appearances. Maybe the track that uses them the most is the gentle and sweet “We Had It All” whose Beatles feeling is in the air as the grand finale. The “Intro” is also a good sample of the Symphonic abilities of the band. But the real Apolinara comes next with “Wonderful” and its pop features and mood with the dancing keyboards. Again as I wrote about Metalite and I guess they got angry – for Metalite’s sake I would it too if some imbecile from an unknown webzine did that to my band – with it “Wonderful” sounds a lot as Abba. In “You Can’t Get away with This” the pop facete is even stronger with a striking guitar solo that saves the day. Talking about guitars “The Smile of the Demon” pretty strong ones as well. It’s one of the tracks of the album that is totaly out of the aforementioned pop features.

Ok, I might have been a little harsher with Apolinara and “Shadows & Signs” but for my little arse’s sake I always tell what I hear and I wouldn’t review the album if I hadn’t like it. Ah, I loved the vocals on “No More” just to make things lighter to me. Or a “I’m sorry” card…

Apolinara “Shadows & Signs” will be released on February 25th.

Track Listing: