SELENE is a symphonic metal band from Ireland.  As is common for this genre, they are female fronted and the music is epic in nature.  In a world where EPICA, NIGHTWISH, XANDRIA, and SIRENIA exist, a band better be on their game if they want a piece of the proverbial Symphonic pie. So how does SELENE measure up?  They do well but there are a few problems. Vocalist Shonagh  Lyons has a great, full range of operatic power.  Unfortunately, she sometimes sounds bored as hell.  This could be due to the production, which is awful to say the least. I want to throw them a bone for said production, as the album is independently produced and thus lacks all the bells and whistles but it really does sound terrible.  The sound is very muffled, as if there is a fog over the entire album.  The snare sounds awful and the symphonics are buried in the mix, which is weird considering the band is, well, symphonic metal.  The bass is completely inaudible; Thomas Aflord might be either the best or worst bass player of all time but no one will ever know because its lost under this swampy production mess. John Connor's guitar screams for a bit more bite; the band would sound ten thousand times heavier if the production gave him more of a presence.

The symphonic textures are simple compared to some of the others of the genre but they are well written and work well enough.  The metal guitars are also pretty good; nothing fancy but have a groove to them that make the songs work.  "Ashes," features some fast riffage, almost thrashy and even throws in a short-but-sweet guitar solos.  Actually, the leads on the album are very well done and one of the highlights; however, they always feel like there could be more to them, as if they want to keep going but can't quite get there.  "Calm Before The Storm," is anything but calm.  It opens with a heavy riff and well placed clean keys.  During the versus, the chunky riffs really work well with the soaring vocals.  The guitar solo is wonderfully melodic and I wish it was stretched out a bit more.

The last track, "The End of Time," is the 10 minute magnum opus of the album.  It's a good track but nothing overly interesting seems to happen in the huge time frame they have to play around with.  I really enjoyed the operatic opening, it recalls "Poet and the Pendulum," from NIGHTWISH.  The playful keyboards that are sprinkled throughout give the song some energy, especially around the 6:20 mark.  The guitars and the keys take turns dueling until some slight ambient sounds come in, backed by the symphonics.  Again, there are some cool ideas on this song but nothing that really blows me away. This is by no means a bad record but it isn't great either.  However, the band is immensely talented and I look forward to what they could do with their third album provided they can get some better production and expand on their sound.