New album by the French melodic / progressive metal outfit.

Venturia for those who’ve been in hibernation is a French melodic/progressive metal outfit and who have recorded three albums to date, ‘DOANE’ being number three. The band is fronted by the lovely Lydie Lazulli, who for those worried about these things doesn’t have and operatic slant to her voice at all. Instead her powerful vocals come across like a glorious mix of Sharon Den Adel and Lzzy Hale, with a bucket full of attitude thrown in for good measure And it’s these very vocals that change the music of Venturia from run of the mill melodic prog metal, to something quite special indeed. Joining Lydie are Thomas James Potrel, Frederic Marchal and Charly Sahona on bass, drums and guitars (Charly incidentally was a finalist in the 2012 Guitar Idol 3 competition), and these three men help Lydie to drive, power and impel the eight songs that can be found on ‘DOANE’, to lofty heights.

To keep flying at those high altitudes you also need to have a great set of songs to back you up and Venturia have them in spades. Personal favourites of mine include the highly melodic ‘Secret Dream’ with it’s intoxicating guitar, superb harmony vocals and strong hook; the heavy ‘A New Dawn Rising’ where Lydie pours out her emotions, energizing the band as they play the song. ‘What If I’, Venturia’s new single (check out the video), has a slow melancholic guitar melody, that joins with Lydie’s charismatic vocals, the song weaves a tale asking what you would do if you were asked to fight and die for freedom and it’s easily in my top ten tracks for 2012. Finally, the brooding ‘Spiritual Path’ shows a different side to Venturia, the band slow things down and then they use the music to build the tension and minute by minute this continues until the song finally bursts over the top of your speakers like water from a broken dam.

The title of this new album says it all ‘Dawn Of A New Era’. Venturia have lost a lot the baggage they had on past albums and have emerged stronger, refreshed and are now ready to take on the world once again and win with this album (despite the fact that at only 37 minutes), I do think they have the tools to do just that.

Ian Johnson