Identity

Liquid Sky deserve some credit for having a more original take on the gothic metal idea. They have the keyboards and the female singer like so many others, but their stuff is more original than the everyday stuff that everyone else seems to come up with. It's heavier and has more force behind it, and while it might not be the kind of stuff that fans of death metal will get behind, it's probably a lot more appealing to the people that find gothic metal to be too poppy and not heavy enough.

Like others before me I have to point out the flaws that there are with this album: the songs do have a tendency to reach lengths that mean they lose interest. I always feel it's better to cap it off a minute or two sooner in order to avoid situations like this, but the band unfortunately decide to stretch their songs out a little too long. The slow drumming isn't very impressive either and the guitars have a tendency to return to playing the same thing over and over again, which isn't great to listen to.

Aside from these points though, everything's great. The vocals are really something special, Hecate Taglietti has a lot of talent. Like with Johanna Manto of Evolvent, I have no idea why she only stuck around until the end of this album, but she really isn't going to be easy to replace. Not quite as good as Helena Michaelsen in my opinion, but that's an argument for another day...

The keyboard is subtle and hidden in the background for the most part, but it's actually nice to hear a change of direction in a genre where things are often pretty much a copy and paste job. The guitars are capable of doing some interesting stuff, particularly when it comes to solos. It is a shame that the ideas are done to death by the end of every song, but at least they're trying to do something original.

Surprisingly the song that I liked the best on Identity was Laid to Rest. For those familiar with Lamb of God, do not think that this is a cover; it's closer to being the opposite of that song than the same thing. It's particularly slow and not too heavy, but the melodies are very nice, which is what I want from gothic metal. The solo is possibly the finest on the whole album, and actually the chorus has an almost Karkaos-like feel to it, namely their song Eden. Kind of an odd thing for gothic metal to sound like (Karkaos play melodeath with metalcore influences), but I enjoy it a lot.

Definitely a record worth checking out if you're after some gothic metal that goes against the grain, Liquid Sky is certainly a band with some interesting concepts. I can't help but wonder if we've already seen the last of them though since it's been seven years since their last album (this one) was released. If it is then that's a shame, because there's genuine talent here.

It's safe to say that Gothic Metal anymore, especially with a female singer, is a dime a dozen, and there are many bands that have changed their sound over the years to try and sound more like they want to be in the mainstream. Liquid Sky does the exact opposite. They're one of the UK's top hidden metal gems for a reason, and "Identity" is a fantastic piece of work.

I once referred to this work as "Lacuna Coil on steroids". That description is not nearly giving it enough credit. The best way to describe it would be if a person took Lacuna Coil, added in Triosphere's progressive elements, then mixed in Sirenia's symphonic beauty and the power of Blind Guardian, put all four of them in a blender and set it to "liquefy". There you go, one cup of Liquid Sky!

This band combines the best elements of gothic, symphonic and power metal and puts it all in a 51-minute collaboration of music that should be played on every station in the country with a note that says "Drop your Evanescence albums and listen to this!". Hecate Taglietti's vocals convey emotion in ways that only gothic metal truly can, and the growling male vocals are used sparingly. The guitars and keyboards support the singing rather well. In spite of some of these songs going six minutes or longer, every single song manages to hold you tight and not let you go.

Songs like "Stitches" and "Echo" are proof positive of this. If you want another example of a song that is just flawless, I dare anyone to listen to "Watch the Ocean" and not at least feel some emotion as the song continues on. That's the true beauty of this album - every song, from the roughly 90 second long "Tranquility Base" to the concluding notes of "Dawn's Pale Light" keep you wanting more.

Is this album perfect? No. The bass and drums could probably be more well defined and the band still needs to work on some of its progressive elements. Admittedly, this band is not like Dream Theater but it's not trying to be. What it does, successfully, is take the best aspects of progressive, symphonic, power and gothic metal.

If you pick up this album, you will not be disappointed.

Liquid Sky’s first real album, Identity, is an excellent listen-through – marking them as one of the better new prog-sympho-goth-power female-led metal bands very few on this side of the pond know about. The entire album is remarkably well-composed, with not a single track being skip-worthy or out of place. The production quality is remarkable, and the music has enough subtlety and nuance that one can actually be glad of the fact.

First, though, the album’s bad points, which are really minor quibbles. Even though the music is subtle and nuanced, even in the bass and drum lines (as one would expect from any band calling themselves ‘progressive’), in a few places Liquid Sky doesn’t allow it room to breathe. On a couple of songs they seem to have become enamoured of a pop-rockish ‘wall of sound’ effect that frustratingly manages to flatten where their songs most require depth. For example, ‘Titan’ is an amazing number, with a headbang-worthy guitar solo. The problem is that it really isn’t allowed space by the bass and supporting guitar lines to stand out to its full effect.

In addition, a couple of the songs suffer from mid-tempo progressive drag syndrome (in which a four-minute song overstays its welcome by lasting up to six), only they do so without really actually progressing. ‘Echo’, ‘Dawn’s Pale Light’ and ‘Laid to Rest’ are good examples of this – you have some catchy riffs in there, but they get repeated, along with the same vocals, without much new being done with them throughout each song. Short and punchy seems to do the trick – my favourite songs on this album are, in fact, the shortest ones apart from the intro: ‘Ghost in the Shell’ and ‘Stitches’. These are minor flaws, however, in comparison with the good points of the album.

As I wrote above, Liquid Sky churns out some amazing, head-banging guitar work, particularly on numbers like ‘Titan’ and ‘Love Labours Lost’; though most of the time, they seem to be engaged in support work for Hecate Taglietti’s vocals. Hecate has three aspects going very much in her favour: she doesn’t pose, she sings from the lungs with decent power, and she brings some real emotion to the lyrics. She isn’t operatic, and she has a great range which she employs rather selectively, but that’s all well and good, since she brings some solid power in her habitual mezzo region. One other thing to mention, though, is the supporting vocals – a daemonic rasp that makes itself heard on occasion underneath Hecate’s main vocal line, accentuating the tortured emotion underlying ‘Stitches’, ‘Watch the Ocean’ and ‘Laid to Rest’. They don’t overuse the rasp, which is probably for the best – their songs aren’t really suited to the ‘beauty and the beast’ vocal arrangement.

Also, though I realise that saying so might end up with me exiled from the extreme metal community forever and a day amen, I do enjoy the 'gothic' synthesiser effects which serve as intros for several of the songs, particularly ‘Ghost in the Shell’ and ‘Love Labours Lost’. ‘Dreamstate’ is the only song where the keyboard really gets kind of annoying and bubbly, but thankfully some good heavy bass work manages to overcome my initial ‘what the fuck is this?’ reaction.

In short, Liquid Sky has everything in its right proportions, and Identity brings them together solidly. This is perhaps my second most listened-to symphonic metal album in my library (apart from Edenbridge’s My Earth Dream), because even though their mixing might have a couple of kinks they will want to work out, they certainly aren’t boring.

18 / 20