Anfel – “Icy World” (2015)

Label: Crysella Records

Review by Warren Mayocchi

Anfel have made their album, “Icy World”, available in four different versions. “The Piano Collection”, “The Instrumental Collection”, “The Symphonic Collection” and the full album. This indicates a few things to me, first of which is that Anfel take pride in crafting interesting music at all levels. For this review I have listened to the full album only. It is certainly not uncommon for bands to release a deluxe version of their album with an instrumental version of all the songs, but this is the first time that I have seen separate releases, with different choices of instrumentals as well! Anfel are a gothic/doom metal band with a clean female and growling male vocal on all tracks. There are two female vocalists, the band have a gloomy/operatic female vocalist and a few songs feature a guest vocalist – Aina (Blackthorn) – who has her own distinct sound. Most of the time when the male and female vocalist are singing, they are performing the same lyrics in a duet. Which is creates an unusual drone that I have not heard much before. Other songs do feature the vocalists interacting in a more traditional manner. As indicated by the instrumental versions of the album, the symphonic music is highlighted in the mix along with the heavy drums – the band do employ guitars but they are only obvious on a few songs. There are songs on this album that work extremely well. “My Truth and its Gist” and “Station of Sadness” are my favourites – they are slower songs which allow the talents available to the band to be showcased. On other songs I wondered whether the ability to break the music into this many unique albums was a hindrance to the overall effect. The vocals, and musical elements seemed to compete with each other for my attention. If you need another reason to buy the album, Anfel have promised that royalties from the album will be donated to a charity.

Rating – 75/100

Tracklist

1. Cry
2. My Truth and Its Gist
3. She’s Crying Over the River
4. Dance With Death
5. Icy World
6. Why
7. In the Darkness of the Night
8. Station of Sadness
9. In Black and White Dreams
10. For Nothing
11. Only Angel Will Turn Away
12. Lullaby For the Lady

Line Up

• Viktoria Belchenkova – Soprano Vocals
• Aina (Blackthorn) – Vocals (Guest)
• Denis Lobotorov – Founder, Composer,Vocal & Bass guitar
• Elvira Alchemida (Blackthorn) – Guitars, Arrangements & Sound

Links

facebook.com/anfelband

twitter.com/lobotorovdenis

vk.com/anfelgroup