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On disc: All Ends



- Wasting Life - Claudia Ehrhardt - 6 stars


www.allends.com







Wasting Life

Wasting Life
(G.U.N. Records - 2007)


All Ends is a metal outfit from Gothenburg and was founded back in 2003. What makes them differ from so many other bands with female fronters? Well, they have two of them. Emma Gelotte and Tinna Karlsdotter both grew up with music, choose different ways before joining All Ends. Guitarist Fredrik Johansson some might know from Dimension Zero where he played with Jesper Strömblad or from his last band Chameleon - with In Flames bassist Peter Iwers. The other guys have been active in the music world, too.
The opening track is called Wasting The Life and starts with keyboard sounds, a little later they add some typical metal riffs and All Ends sound a bit heavier. Musically the Swedish combine gothic rock with metal riffing, poppy keyboard sounds and female vocals. The vocals of Emma and Tinna are more emotional - not the operatic style you hear everywhere - and the deep tone fits to the dark sounds. But I miss real emotions... It seems that every note, every word is done for it's effect and so calculated.... Anyway, not a bad one. On Alone the heavy riffs dominate and the keyboard steps back a bit. Actually this one sounds more natural.... Here the girls sound a bit like Amy Lee of Evanescence. At Am I Insane the vocals are more up-front and got backed up by heavy riffs. A catchy melody adds makes it easy to remember this one. The vocals are more based in 80's rock - a but Heart-ish - and that sound good in combination with modern metal. At Close My Eyes I have the feeling that they are limited by something... That they can't really go 100%.... The Day Has Come has a sad note and the vocals sound good, but the guitars are too dominant and don't give the vocals enough space. A pity.
The debut EP was produced by Christian Wolff (e.g. Within Temptation, Rage, etc.) and the Resetti Brothers who worked with In Extremo, Exilia and others.
All Ends aren't presenting something completely new, but what's new is to have two female lead singers and that works well. The songs are well done, but I hoped for a larger variety of sounds as they have so many possibilities with the 2 girls. And perhaps a less polished sound would have been better for them, coz so they fit too much into the MTV scheme...


6 stars

Claudia Ehrhardt
 

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