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Imperia - The Ancient Dance Of Qetesh review



Reviewer:
8.5

32 users:
7.19
Band: Imperia
Album: The Ancient Dance Of Qetesh
Release date: October 2004


01. Awakening
02. Mysted By Desire
03. The Ancient Dance Of Qetesh
04. Mordor
05. Angelchild
06. Escape
07. Into Paradise
08. Entering The Perspective
09. Into The Great Wide Open
10. Secret Garden
11. Scared For Love
12. In Your Mind
13. Chill Out
14. The Lotus Eaters [Dead Can Dance cover] [bonus]

Helena Iren Michaelsen is a person that has earned great amount of popularity among Metalheads in the world, being former member of such renowned acts as Trail Of Tears and Sahara Dust (now Epica) she decided to take her career a step further, so she moved to Holland (she's Norwegian), once there she gathered a band and formed Imperia, the new Gothic sensation that took Metalheads by storm last year, musically and visually.

Visually? Well, the visual aspect of Imperia is of course Helena Iren, which is some kind of sexy bomb Metal vixen thingie, don't get me wrong, she's as talented as beautiful, but for those who really bought the album, just take a look at the booklet photographs to see what I'm talking about.

Anyway, for those who listen early albums of Trail Of Tears or Sahara Dust before it was Epica, Helena's voice needs no introduction, her voice just amazing, trust me on this one, you just can't go wrong here. As for the album itself, while "The Ancient Dance In Qetesh" (Qetesh: Egyptian Goddess of love and beauty) is not the hardest album of 2004, has the correct atmosphere to be qualified as Metal. Orchestration plays a major role in the album, the string arrangements replace the guitars that are quite buried in the mix, some choirs here and then gives a nice touch to the atmosphere.

I must say that I'm only disappointed in one thing, by the name, artwork and overall vibe, I thought this album was a little "eastern" oriented, if you know what I mean, but besides the artwork (including the band logo font) and Helena's clothing, there is no major Arabic/Egyptian influence here, for a while here I though I was going to get something like Melechesh on a Gothic trip, but instead I got Helena Iren Michaelsen performing Gothic Metal, which is also good, but not that original.

Nevertheless, this is a must-have for any fan of some high quality Gothic Metal, musically and visually, Imperia does their best effort, and it can show in the compositions, songs are varied and the records is quite good in my opinion. Give it a listen, you won't regret it.

Written by Undercraft | 24.02.2005




Comments

Comments: 3   Visited by: 54 users
15.01.2009 - 13:33
4look4rd
The Sasquatch
Pretty nice album, and you are right the album cover really sucks. Looks like the cover of a porno
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23.09.2009 - 15:33
AnGina--
Dark Phoenix
Yea, I was just wondering why there are no Imperia fans here? Anyhoo, I think Helena Iren is one of the singers who are mostly underrated in gothic or better to say femme fronted metal. She has an amazing voice and she knows how to use it.

I agree, the pics are.... well, a bit too juicy for GM probably, but she sure is nice too look at

Anyway, I like The Ancient Dance Of Qetesh, especially Mordor, Angelchild and the cover of The Lotus Eaters. But I like Queen Of light quite more
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You think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it. Molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was a man. But it was nothing to me but blinding.
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18.05.2012 - 22:06
Rating: 10
athena

The previous two commentors seem to have their genders reversed

I found this album to be quite amazing
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