Raving Season - The Brightness Of My Disaster

Raving Season from Italy play a mixture of Doom/Death and Gothic Metal with a Progressive Rock edge with two female vocalists. There is Judith who has the clean more melodic voice while Federica handles the more extreme growling type vocal parts. I normally find it hard to get into bands like this but i found this CD (which is classed as a EP despite its 35 minute running time) to be quite a enjoyable listen. The band has a pretty heavy sound but also includes acoustic parts and keyboards. The album starts with a acoustic/keyboard intro piece before leading into the first real track which is clearly Gothic Metal. The contrast between the two different vocal styles blend surprisingly well and the instrumentation is very progressive but also has a epic doom atmosphere.The song is quite a journey at over 10 minutes and while the track is well put together, i feel the guitars lack a bit of crunch. "The Sterile Caress Of Violence" starts off in a more Black Metal direction with a growling vocal attack and with many style changes within the one track. This track seems to be the most old-school on the EP bringing back memories of bands like "Nightwish". Its another long track but well constructed and arranged so it doesn't drag on too much, this is maybe the pick of the album. "Shield Cage" continues in a similar direction but at this stage the vocals might be become a bit grating if you are not into this style. This song like the others is pretty complex but interesting enough to keep you attention. The guitar work is solid throughout without stealing the show, just heavy enough to fill out the songs, the vocals being the way they are tend to me the main focal point of the band.Maybe a little too much at times but you can be the judge of that. The EP ends with a beautiful melancholic piano piece called "My Funeral" which is haunting and brings the disc to a close in a powerful yet mellow way. The drum sound on this EP i found to be a little frustrating as the sound seems to be a little uneven at times but the rest of the mix sounds great.Not much to criticize about it musically, they are all very good at what they do but how you hear this EP will for the most part come down to the vocals. If you are a fan of Gothic styled Death Doom with female vocals then you will eat this up, if not you may find it a little annoying.I am somewhere in the middle, musically i found it to be a good, slightly complex but enjoyable Death Doom EP but the Gothic edge threw me off at times. I would still highly recommend you check this out if this is a style you like and if you are new to the genre then you could do much worse than this. 7/10

www.myspace.com/ravingseason