I hear the insanely high pitched soprano voice of an angel but the sound of pure metal proudly boasting in the background. Have you recently listened to SERENADE's album, "Onirica?" I am highly intrigued. "Onirica" opens with "Hold Me Back," which is shockingly heavy with brutal break downs but those vocals are angelic. A beautiful blend of gothic, symphonic, progressive and thrash metal.  I sense they are highly influenced by NIGHTWISH, LACUNA COIL, EPICA and EVANESCENCE.

Again, I am still intrigued but I feel like her voice, as beautiful as it is, overpowers the music. The music is mostly just noise jumbled together and her voice is salvaging that. "When Darkness Will Fall" seems to be the highlight of "Onirica." It comes on catchy and deliciously heavy with ominous, dark riffs and use of synthesizer to create some atmosphere.

"Stormborn" is a slow, somber piano ballad accompanied by Claudia's voice. Again, her voice just overpowers the piano. Maybe this is a production issue, I don't know, but there seems to be some dissonance between the vocals and music throughout the album. "Oceanus" could be a masterpiece of a track, but I hear fuzzy instruments and no distinction between them.

I understand that SERENADE decided to change their sound from gothic symphonic to more of a thrashy, melodic, progressive sound with some gothic elements. However, unfortunately I think they are missing the mark. They have the potential, it is there, and once they experiment a little more and perfect their sound, it will be a masterpiece. I like the new direction they are taking, but the band needs to adjust and tweak a few things to make it work.  I did not hate what I was hearing–quite the contrary.  I was intrigued and would love to listen to more after some adjustments have been made. I am huge fan of female fronted bands, and I love that gothic, "beauty and the beast" music but I am feeling torn on this due to the issues I aforementioned.