Mea Vita - Fevral

Mea Vita is an all female band from Russia, consisting of Felis, Lila and Winter. You may recognise Winter from her vocal role in Moscow based gothic rockers Fright Night. The music could be loosely described as neoclassical gothic darkwave.

The title track of this release opens with an evocative piano overlayed with female gothic operatic vocals, sung in Russian. Make no doubt - she can sing. It's the kind of vocal line that comes across as well recorded on CD, but could possibly have sent chills down your spine if you had been there in the studio. This is going well.

And then suddenly, we are into synth territory. The transition is somewhat disorientating. Firstly, it just doesn't seem to fit or to be at all necessary. Secondly, the synth work is not particularly great. It sounds brittle, two dimensional, lacklustre. Gothic rock guitars now move in, with some passable fretwork leading us through the rest of the track. I'd have preferred the lead guitar an octave higher, but by now I'm just relieved that we are back into something that offers more promise.

The structure of this release is two tracks (Fevral and Snezhinki), with the remaining 7 tracks being remixes.

Snezhinki takes a lean towards gothic metal, with well executed guitars doing their best to gloss over some less than stellar synth work. It is the kind of track that by all rights should go down well with fans of Epica or Within Temptation, but never really threatens to scale those lofty heights. It's a shame, because with a liberal scoop of epic choirs and symphonic grandeur, this music could be really good, unique even.

And then, the remixes. More of the same. Case in point: The Ariu Kara Cold remix begins with promise, teasing us with some lovely orchestral work before ultimately confusing us. It seems caught in a bizarre oscillation between compellingly good and disconcertingly average. My entire reaction to this album is quite possibly manifested at the very end of this track - lush symphonics overlayed with distorted lo-fi vocals. Bizarre.

Among the remixes, the only standout offering is the Ainoma Eternal Winter remix, which brings us something both well produced and internally consistent. But just as quickly as they give, so they taketh away. The final track, Snezhinki (Pulsing Remix By Aggressive Remover), is a shocker. The main vocal line has been grabbed by the throat and drowned in a cavernous, pulsating reverb. If this is supposed to be witch house then I'm afraid to say that the witch fled the building several centuries ago.

Now, I'm going to do these ladies the service of judging this release in terms of their own original work, while considering that all up it only represents a fraction of this offering. The music has its flaws, there's little doubt. But that's not to say that it is all bad. In fact, the more I listen to it, the more it courts me with its charms. But unless you are fanatically into the symphonic side of gothic, and willing to forgive a few lapses in production, I'd be hesitant to recommend it. Aug 14 2012