Scarlet Aura – Genesis of Time
Label: Silver City Records Playing Time: 71 Min Release: 10th September 2021
The new album of the Romanian band Scarlet Aura is the final chapter of the “The Book of Scarlet” trilogy. The style of the band has remained the same: classic, female fronted Heavy Metal. But you should know that singer Aura has nothing in common with vocalists like Tarja Turnen or Floor Jansen. Instead, her rough und powerful vocals reminds me more of Sister Sin’s Liv Jagrell.
But how does “Genesis of Time” sound like? The instrumentalists deliver solid work, as well as Aura on vocals although I have to say, that her way of singing is slightly one dimensional. Despite the solid performance, the songs don’t really click with me. But why? Basically, there are two main factors: On the one hand, the songs are simply too long. You could also say that they do not offer sufficient diversity, different parts and changes, for their length. Most songs exceed five minutes, some even six minutes. But only a few tracks abandon the typical verse-chorus pattern and there is only a little variation between the parts. Sometimes less is even more. On the other hand, I am missing some real catchy parts. No melodies, no choruses qualify as ear candy, although the choruses stand out in the songs. One of the positive exceptions is ‘Frostbite’. Beside the opener ‘The Book of Scarlet’, this is the best track on the album. Significantly, ‘The Book of Scarlet’ is a six and a half minute long instrumental. The consequence is that my finger touches the skip button quite often. Listening to the album multiple times does not change my impression, though. All in all this album isn’t hot stuff, it’s only lukewarm.
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6/10