Anyway, as MTM now also venture into the field of Metal, we now get the second album of the Finns, in a beautiful DigiPak, with a great cover, the first impression is very positive. Musically the whole thing also leaves a good impression, even though they, of course, are going into the "usual" Finno-Gothic-direction, I like the crunchiness of the song-material, the guitars add enough crisp to make the compositions sound really good.

That the quintet won't win any prizes for originality is just as obvious. HIM and SENTENCED (especially in the melodies) are shining through, but for that EMBRAZE are, like mentioned before, crunchier, which is something on the positive side. That they also try (and successfully I may add) to differ is proven by the sound of an accordion in "Endless Journey" and the middle-part of "Tenderness" (in which the clear vocals are not 100%), where they give us a Metal-variant of the "Phantom of the Opera"-theme.

Vocally Lauri Tuohimaa also is in the vein of a certain Mr. Valo, but that guy doesn't growl so nicely. Apart from these parts from "Tenderness" everything is in the green, though. Well, almost, because here and there they use a few distorted vocals, which my ears don't like...

Who would like to get an audio-picture of EMBRAZE, take "Whispers", "Endless Journey" or "Robot Stud" (a cover of Finnish band RIFF-RAFF, thanks for this info to AnalBlaster69 and Kurva Bicha from the "Suomi Finland Perkele"-board!)... One more point of criticism: the sound of the bass-drum. I'd have hoped or a little more punch production-wise, because the use of the kick-drums is very good, just a tad more power...

A good album, which the Gothic Metalians among you should really like, even though you won't get anything really new, but the crunchy guitars alone already are an important factor that EMBRAZE differ at least a bit from the rest...