Tacere - Beautiful Darkness
Suomen Musiiki Oy
Melodic Euro Power Metal
12 songs (47:55)
Release year: 2007
Tacere, Suomen Musiiki Oy
Reviewed by Ross
Surprise of the month
For some unknown reason when you have a female fronted Metal band many lump them in the ‘Goth’ genre of Metal bands. There are also a lot of Meatalheads out there that think there is no place for female fronted Metal bands in Metal at all; all this does is show that there are still narrow and closed minded people out there. Granted a lot of the current female fronted Metal bands do fall into the category of Gothic or Gothic-ish; especially the bands whose female vocalist sing in an Operatic or pseudo Operatic style. So, for the record,Tacere are not a Gothic band! Tacere play a mix of musical genres but for all you that like their music all nicely labelled and pigeon-holed, then I suppose Melodic Euro Power Metal is as close as you’re gonna get. Yet you will get a lot more, with some Prog, Rock, Old School Metal, something that could, to certain ears, be interpreted as Gothic and quite a lot that is uniquely Tacere.

To say that Tacere is female fronted isn’t quite accurate. Yes there is a female in the band who stands at the front of the stage and sings, but, there is also a male member of the band who stands at the front of the stage and sings. So, Tacere is in fact a male and female fronted Metal band. “Ah, like Lacuna Coil” you might say; well, no. At many Lacuna Coil concerts you will get countless members of the audience thinking “Who the f***’s that beardie guy singing with Christina?” Somehow, I can’t see that happening with Tacere. Vocalist Karri Knuuttila and Helena Haaparanta share lead in almost equal amounts and both have a wide range of vocal styles; Karri from clean and melodic to rough and growly, Helena from sweetly haunting to raunchy rocking, each of them bringing something to the mix that creates a certain kind of ‘Oneness’ that makes each song complete. I’ve seen posters given away in music mags of Lacuna Coil which only feature Christina Scabbia! I mean, where’s the rest of the band? I’m sure it’s not Christina’s fault and narrow minded publicists aim these things at hormone laden fanboys, but I feel certain such misogynistic displays will not be tolerated in Tacere, especially not by Helena herself!

Enough of this gender defining stuff, let’s get to what really matters - The Music. Tacere’s debut album Beautiful Darkness won me over with the first spin. It has everything I look for in my Euro Power Metal: Catchy riffs, hook laden choruses rippin’ solos and melodic harmonies on guitar; symphonic, melodic, sweeping and soaring keyboarding; precision, spine-jarring, lung vibrating bass, all played on the album by Karri incidentally, with Janne Salminen playing the keyboard solo on Foes Of The Sun, and some awesome, technical, metronomic quality drumming with mind blowing kick patterns from Jarno “Jake” Vanhanen.

The majority of the music is fairly fast paced, as you’d expect with Euro Power Metal, and roughly follows the style template of said genre. As I mentioned, there are a boatload of varying styles spread liberally throughout the album. Excursion, Black Roses and Born On the Ground have a Neo-Classical / Baroque thing going on and tempos varying from ballad to shredding. Deep Tears Of Tragedy is kinda radio friendly mainstream-ish that could come from any number of Euro Power Metal bands from the current scene, with one of those choruses you can’t get out your head. Perhaps the most diverse song is Phantasm which is mainly ballad that has elements of Neo-Classical, Rock, Jazz, Prog bouncing around in there, sweep-picking, speed fingering up the fretboard and a jaw dropping mini bass guitar solo run. The album was produced from hundreds of tracks and many months of recording, mainly by Karri, and was mixed and mastered by Karri and ‘Producer Meister’ Anssi Kippo who has done some amazing work with Children Of Bodom.

However, because Karri has played such a major role in the making of this album, having his finger on the pulse of the entire creation from start to finish, the big question has got to be – Can they do it LIVE? With additional musicians Pekka Pyrhönen on bass guitar, Seppo Nummela on second guitar and Jarno Vanhanen taking up full keyboarding duties, everything seems to be covered for a live performance. But, will Karri be able to allow the live line-up musicians to play without interference? Will there be a nightly hissy fit on tour cos someone didn’t play something exactly as he would have? Will he be a ‘Young Pretender’ of Jon Schaffer? Or will he accept that he needs other musicians to spread his work. I certainly hope so cos I for one would like to hear more from Tacere and if they can carry across the vibrancy, vitality and energy to the stage, then festival and tour promoters will be beating a path to their door to get them on their bill.

Get on to their My Space site and listen to some of their kick-ass choons and watch their video for Deep Tears Of Tragedy, I’m sure after you’ve heard them you won’t hesitate to part with some hard earned readies to get hold of what I’m sure, in the very near future, is going to be one of the top Euro Power Metal bands around.
Killing Songs :
Deep Tears Of Tragedy, I Devour, A Voice In The Dark, Born Of The Ground
Ross quoted 85 / 100
Other albums by Tacere that we have reviewed:
Tacere - A Voice In The Dark (EP) reviewed by Ken and quoted 85 / 100
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