I picked up Silent Nightmare’s album Awakening at con several years ago and was reminded that I had it in my drawer in a series of very odd events (Nothing quite makes this young critic jump like the phrase “Wait you’re Arin Wolfe?” Thankfully it was only “I saw you at a con!”) It’s good stuff on the whole.
Vocalist Tara Duhan clearly has years of vocal training under her belt giving her a thoroughly sophisticated style and very technically correct sound. However, this is also her biggest weakness she is so focused on being correct that she loses a lot of the emotional content. She also comes off a little tight in places. That beging said, she has an incredibly powerful voice with a dynamic range spanning the majority of the mezzo-soprano range.
The guitar work is also solid as is the bass work. However, the balance is in desperate need of a rehaul. Hearing all of the instrumentation at the same level at once is cacophonous and distracting in a otherwise charming piece.
There is a cinematic feel to the work as well, it sounds as though it should be a video game soundtrack and it has that same produced sound on top of the dramatic sentiment
My favorite track is the acoustic version of “The Key” as a lot of the over produced sound is dropped and even the vocals are less technical and more passionate. I would love to see more like that track.
Overall it was a decent album. Solid all the way around.
(4/6)
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