Anyone who's been in online metal forums in the last couple of years has at least seen the name Howling Syn. Started as a solo project with mostly instrumental songs available on mp3.com, Howling Syn is now a real band and this is their first studio album. To throw this only into the "Medieval Gothic" metal genre would be a bit restrictive, as a couple of songs sound more like power metal. In the same vein as their mp3.com repertoire, this album contains quite a bit of variety and doesn't get boring - in fact the 61 minutes go by pretty fast, something I definitely liked when I was listening to the album at the office. :)

The vocal work is shared by both Patrick Pigeon and Sophie LeMay, sometimes singing together, sometimes in turn. In a couple of places where they are singing simultaneously, it gave a little "overloading" effect as if that part was out of place, but overall the vocal work is great. I especially like their work on "Medieval Years", very catchy stuff (too catchy, I can't get it out of my head!) Patryk varies his voice quite a bit, from very clean vocals to vocals that are not without reminding me *a little* of Dani Filth (but not nearly as annoying - don't worry.) Sophie on the other hand has more of an operatic type of voice, sometimes with a little sad tone that fits the music well.

But for a couple of exceptions, all songs come out as pretty powerful stuff. One song that freaked me out a bit is "Black Moon". The synths sound a bit "Pump up the jam-ish", a bit too dance-techno-whatever. Somebody went synth-crazy here. ;) The use of real instruments to record the album makes the music sound a lot better than the earlier stuff released on mp3.com.

There's so much variety on this album that I could go on for a couple more paragraphs... but I won't. :) This is a very good debut album and Howling Syn have successfully graduated from an essentially MIDI project to the status of real band.

by Michel Renaud