La-Ventura - A New Beginning
La-Ventura - CD Review
A New Beginning
CD Info
2007
Independent / Renaissance Records
10 Tracks
English lyrics
A new band, a new beginning and a new addition to the already lengthy list of gothic metal bands from The Netherlands. Once again I must draw the conclusion, that the most talented bands from this genre are from our country. This is certainly the case with LA-VENTURA, who can easily compete with all the bigger names from this scene, like WITHIN TEMPTATION, AFTER FOREVER, EPICA and THE GATHERING. In my opinion, this band comes very close to WITHIN TEMPTATION, our biggest export product at the moment. Let’s introduce LA- VENTURA a bit closer to you. The band consists of Saz Kondic on guitars, Marco van Boven on keyboards, Mike Saffrie on bass, Erwin Polderman on drums (ex- ORPHANAGE) and Carla Douw on vocals. Their music is a mix of very passionate sung gothic metal and modern alternative loud riffing rock. The vocals of Carla are the biggest eye-catcher, but soon you’ll discover the beauty of the instrumental input as well. For example, the riffing in "Cry" is really great! Perhaps the rather experimental, industrial-like beginning of "Messed Up" sounds even beter in a way! It definitely has a more excentric feel, including the better singing parts of Carla. Carla’s voice is very easy to like. She pronounces the lyrics pretty clear and comes close to singers like Amy Lee (EVANESCENCE), Anneke van Giersbergen (THE GATHERING, now AGUA DE ANNIQUE) and Sharon den Adel (WITHIN TEMPTATION). However, best thing for me is the fact that the band produced the album all by themselves. They even took care of the artwork and the pictures in the booklet, in other words they are a self-made band. Which is quite extraordinairy these days. Not being a self-made band maybe, but to do it so succesfully like this band. The reviews are all good, and I cannot find any negative aspect to this CD. On the contrary, the CD gets better and better after each song . "The Hunter" being one of the definate highlights of the album. Well, maybe there’s one negative thing here. The album contains ten songs and plays for about forty minutes only. That’s a bit short, considering that you can put a double amount of music on a silver disc. On the other hand, it’s better to release ten good songs in forty minutes, than to stuff your CD with a lot of fillers, just to get a full hour of music. "Right & Righteousness" is a great CD closer. I really wonder, what the future will bring for these new Dutch talents. Will they get signed by a record label, how will they develop their music style on the next album, and how will this band sound live on stage? Hopefully, we will be able to answer all these questions (and more!) in an interview that we’re doing with the band. Don’t forget the name of the band: LA-VENTURA, because you’ll probably hear their name more often in the near future. Website: http://www.la-ventura.com
8 / 10
