Katra Finland

"I'm not really into the sort of polished and poppy gothic metal which has gained quite a lot of popularity with the rise of Nightwish and similar bands. Katra's "Out of the Ashes" essentially belongs to this genre, but I actually think that it's not that bad.

What I like about this album is that there is emphasis on guitar riffage and guitar solos, and that the epic sounding keyboards that are typical of the genre, are not really that dominant. And there certainly are plenty of hardrocking and interesting guitar riffs - just check out "Delirium", "Mirror" and the title track.

I do, however, this that the songs on this album tend to become too formulaic, as the power ballad format with its soft verses and heavy choruses is a bit too dominant for my taste - note that, this does not mean that we are dealing with a load of sappy ballads (not at all).

Katra is a gifted and skilled singer, to be sure, but I think that her voice is generally too soft. It fits the soft parts well, but I think that a harsher, more raw rock n roll-ish voice would be more suitable for the heavy parts.

But, all in all, this is a good record, I think, and I recommend it to metal fans who do not mind a lot of melody.

(review originally posted in Danish on heavymetal.dk and in English on metalmusicarchives.com)"