Adastreia is English, from London, no less. There have been a few English gothic musicians, but not a lot. When I think England, I think Cradle of Filth. . . or the Beatles, but not operatic gothic. Well, so much for stereotypes. Especially with a female lead. But Adastreia is a significant talent, and not just for the lovely female leads provided by songstress Martin. The rest of the band is good too, as is the production, and the lyrics.

Adastreia provide an interesting description to the origins of their name. Adastreia, it seems, comes from the Greek for Nemesis: she whom none can escape. And Nemesis is the goddess of divine justice and vengeance. Her anger is directed toward human transgression of the natural, right order of things and of the arrogance causing it. Well, the long and the short of it is that we have a relatively nasty Greek goddess you really don’t want to mess around with. If that sounds like a title for a strong, gothic metal sound, you probably got the point. And, the sound is correctly linked to this concept, and delivered by a strong operatic vocalist, who even looks the part.

Adastreia began in 04 with the disbanding of a previous metal offering. The key remaining elements of that group added Martin as vocalist and keyboardist. It didn’t take long to come to the conclusion that anything that distracted Martin was not a good thing. . . and another keyboard artist was recruited to relieve Martin from the keys and let her focus on the vocals. Personnel being somewhat consistent, the band did some limited recording and a lot of live performances around London. That Which Lies Within was recorded in 2007 as an initial offering and the band returned to live performances.

Current personnel include Alexandra Martin –Vocals, Del Gentilini – Guitairs, David Friend – Guitars, Matt Clarke – Bass, Wes Keenan – Drums and Josiah Lutton – Keyboards. Each provides a strength, and a fine background to the soaring vocals that serve to focus the music.

The CD is a 7 song compellation. It is gothic metal, it is strong vocals, it is female metal at it’s finest. The metal kicks off with Delirium, a metal anthem with electronics over killer guitars. . . and the signature gothic operatic vocals provided by Martin. If you want female vocals done to heavy metal, you know you are in for a treat about 30 seconds into this number. The production is excellent, the background instruments are strong, and the vocals are exemplary.

The highlight of the CD is, without a doubt, The Reach. I can’t think of too many gothic offerings that can compare. The song is 5 and a half minutes of pure gothic metal, every component you ever wanted done to the extreme. The background music is probably not as strongly emphasized as some on this CD, but for good reason. This song is Martin, the voice, the lyrics, the presentation. She sings:

This song has some of the best gothic lyrics I have ever heard. And the delivery is stone cold. Martin takes us to operatic gothic realms rarely achieved, in a delivery that matches the lyrics in every respect. If you haven’t figured out gothic music after hearing this one, you never will. Better get back to that country western and it’s "Tell your Ma, Tell your Pa, out love’s gonna grow, wa wa". We’ve left that sound several light years behind.

That Which Lies Within doesn’t stray far from its roots. It is heavy metal with the strong female lead. Even titles like Tempest, which attempt to soften things up, become pure metal at some point. The guitars make a strong charge towards taking over. . . up to the point where Martin kicks in. From there, all instruments, strong as they are, become little more than background for her operatic vocals. It’s a tour de force of gothic metal, and one that delivers in every regard.

We can only hope that this is only the first of many for this English gothic team. The sound works, the lyrics are exactly what we want to hear. . . and they are delivered by one of the finest vocalists currently working the business.

9 / 10