AD INFINITUM is a 4-Piece Symphonic Metal Band from Montreux, Switzerland and this is their first Full-Length release. Montreux has a special place in the hearts of many fans around the world for their Live Music Festival and so many giants have graced the stage of one the most important Music Festivals in the History of music. A lot of people were raised on that music and forged their desire to be musicians and AD INFINITUM does fit the bill quite well.

They are on Napalm Records, probably my favorite record label with Frontier Music. They have so many awesome bands likes ALESTORM, GLORYHAMMER, METAL CHURCH, POWERWOLF, NANOWAR OF STEEL among countless others. I have seen ads for AD INFINITUM through YouTube for the last month or so and it definitely picked my curiosity. I am quite glad to be able to review this album because of the quality put out by that record label throughout the last few years.

I do believe I have heard Melissa Bonny's work beforehand because I did review some SKELETOON albums back in the day and I do remember her nice and powerful voice. I am quite glad to be able to hear her on a larger stage and for a full album and not only some guest work back in 2019 obviously. I don't much about her other band RAGE OF LIGHT but I will surely check that out pretty damn soon!

I really enjoyed that fact that for a Symphonic Metal band, you don't have those operatic vocals that can get on your nerves, especially mine. The vocals are outstanding, Melissa Bonny has a particular talent and you don't feel slighted nor you get bored hearing her. There is always something different from song to song. Some singers always do the same schtick but she mixes a bit of harsher vocals sometimes and can push her vocals to the max as well. She does not sing the same way on ''Marching to Versailles'' than on ''See You in Hell''. She shows two different sides of her voice. She is such an emotional singer and she is the face the band makes it all together. Her performance is top notch you have brutally emotional yet brilliant heart-felt lyrics throughout this opus.

They remind me of a number of bands but I refuse to typecast them to a particular style nonetheless. You have the Symphonic Metal elements of bands like DELAIN, WITHIN TEMPTATION but you also have that brutal and Dark Progressive Power Metal like EVERGREY. Some songs do take a couple of minutes to get going but the chorus makes for the wait. You have a lot of soft verses and more mid-tempo songs yet the pacing is fine by my standards. I would not have finished the album with ''Tell Me Why'' yet you do have some dark brooking uptempo tracks that fill the void of more more average songs.

The opening song gives the listener a clear picture of what to expect, you have a lot of orchestrations and vocal shifts. It's a rather varied album with the tradition Symphonic Power Metal ballad that is pretty much standard to the genre but it's not overly cheesy thankfully. It may be less unique that a lot of bands out there in the genre but it's catchy and quite diversified. The patterns may be predictable and songs should have been a bit longer for my taste but from an objective point of view. The lyrics are quite enjoyable yet stereotypical in sense but props to the primary writers behind the lyrics, it's still quite solid.

The album is not perfect. There a few downsides. It's not going to reinvent the wheel by any means and the pace of the album does suffer at times, perhaps the placement of the songs could have been better but it's still a very enjoyable listen and an impressive vocal performance by Melissa Bonny.