I was rather impressed by Atargatis’ ‘Wasteland’ CD from last year and saw it as a good alternative to Nightwish.

The problem with the band’s new release, Nova, is that it fails to impress entirely. It fails, in my view, in terms of the quality of the song writing as well as production. Moreover, the male vocal of Lord Lornhold (?) is for the most part downright terrible, starting out with the first proper track, Ebon Queen. It spoils the experience of the lovely Stephanie Luzie's fine and characteristic voice and the hints at hit potential as for example in the tune Firebird.

The occasional hints of great musicianship that do occur are just not enough to make this release really relevant.

A shame really.

Next.