Venturia – Dawn of a New Era

Female fronted, French melodic metal band Venturia haven’t exactly had an easy time of it over the last couple of years. An unfortunate series of line-up changes (sometimes due to circumstances plainly  beyond their control) have meant that putting music out there has been a difficult task for the band. Happily, though, that’s about to change, with the release of this, their latest studio offering, aptly entitled Dawn of a New Era.

Dawn of a New Era it definitely seems to be. There’s a good, fresh quality about the music here. Opener Devil in Disguise sets the tone for the rest of the album, melodic, synth-heavy and fast paced metal music. It’s good, too. The phrase “female fronted metal band” conjures up all sorts of unfortunate images of Venturia becoming another clone-band of metallers Nightwish – not that this would be a bad thing, but more a boring thing. Venturia however have managed to retain the persona of being the aforementioned  “female fronted metal band” without succumbing to this, but instead creating their own sound that’s very easily identifiable.

Good points – synth metal has always been a bit of a dangerous game. It can either go really well (some Children of Bodom is a good example, because it can be pure genius), or it can be a total fiasco (again, some other Children of Bodom is a good example here, because there are some diabolical moments too). Happily, though, Venturia have pulled it off in style, mixing just the right amount of epic, glassy sounding synthesizer sounds with some hefty, chugged riffs that blend together exquisitely.

Issues – Few, but there are a couple. The guitars could be a little bit more pronounced throughout the whole album, as they do tend to be a little bit quiet, enough for them to fade into the background at a fair few points. Let’s face it, Venturia are at heart a metal band, and this album doesn’t exactly sound as hard hitting as possibly it should. Other than this, Dawn of a New Era is a complete success.

Overall, then, Venturia should be proud of this album. They’ve overcome what sounds like a very rough patch to come up with something fresh sounding, unique and on the whole a success. Dawn of a New Era has got a little bit of everything, and despite its few flaws, is definitely good enough to put this band straight back on the right track. Great job.

Rating: 7/10

Track Listing

Devil in Disguise

Scarlet Dream

A New Dawn Rising

What We’re Here For

What If I

Phoenix

Spirital Path

A Land of Dreams

Venturia are:

Thomas James

Florine Acquisto

Fred Marchal

Charly Sahona