KATRA - Out Of The Ashes
Two years after Beast Within, Finnish symphonic metal band Katra, named after their singer Katra Solopuro, is back with their new album Out Of The Ashes. The sextet has in the meantime been reduced to a quintet, as the keyboarder had to leave the band due to family reasons. Despite the lack of his instrument, the new record doesn’t sound that different from its predecessor.
This means that we are met with the same problems as in the past. There are no complaints from a technical point of view, but that’s about as good as it gets. If I have to come up with a comparison, I would pick their label mates Edenbridge, although Katra move in lower circles. Edenbridge never sound truly aggressive, but Katra are even mellower. The metal guitar has its moments, but whenever the vocals set in, the music seems to vanish in the background. Some tracks rather succeed, but there’s not enough hits to make this longplayer work. My personal highlight is Mirror which shows the band from its most varied side with a healthy dose of pathos. Even the quiet guitar that has a certain jazz undertone fits the mood. The slightly Celtic One Wish Away and the thrilling Anthem are two further better moments by the band. Unfortunately there is also a lot of average material, like Envy which suffers from its expansive length and the two concluding tracks The End Of The Scene and Hide And Seek that both just don’t seem to want to ignite.
Katra still have a long way to go if they want to play an essential role in the female fronted epic symphonic metal league. There are just too many similar bands like Edenbridge, Epica, After Forever and especially Within Temptation that are just doing better and releasing albums that sound much more mature.