Rampart is a Bulgarian heavy metal band formed in 2006 by the guitar player Kamenov and the drummer Borislav. Maria D.S. joined the two to take care of the vocals. To perform live, they get help from session musicians Georgiev (guitar) and Spiridonov (bass). In their home-country they are becoming rather popular and they are receiving good feedback.

'Voice of the Wilderness' is their debut and their first steps to probably gain more fans outside of Bulgaria. But can this album compete with the music we are used to get from the more known and more popular bands in the same genre? I have to say no, not yet. The musical ideas are there and the song writing and arrangements are hopeful, but this is not more than average yet. The mixture of German (power) metal with NWOBH influences is decent, but you can hear that they don't have the same recording budget as bigger bands. With a top producer/mixer, they can take a step up next time.

Another point I'm not so enthusiastic about are the vocals. They are not special enough (too average) to outshine and to make the difference internationally. Especially in the higher regions Maria's range is not wide enough to sing all the notes pure and the accent can become a bit irritating (just listen to the ballad "Age of Steel"), also the choir-singing parts can be worked on. Most positive I am about the guitar solos in the songs. Especially in the fast tracks Kamenov takes the spotlight. In general I think the band has at it's best moments in the up-tempo songs. The slower ones don't do that much for me.