Amantyde
Madchen

The Amantyde is a band formed in Veneto in 2006. Among the exchanges I occasionally make, I find myself holding a copy of their self-produced CD dated 2011.

From the group's name to that of the album (in German, 'girl'), it all seems aimed at putting the female figure of the singer at the center. For this particular CD, due to the themes, and especially the internal and external artwork, the subject wants to be the woman and the abuses she suffers in society (or maybe it refers to something more personal, I'm not sure).

In the early days they were more tied to gothic metal, while over time they moved towards a more thrash style (at times also with rock/alternative parts), an aspect that led me to review them.

I take it a bit as a challenge, to be able to find the positive aspects of a genre that, taken as it is, does not fit my personal tastes (they are not even present here on DeBaser, so why not write a few lines...).

Separating the work of "strings" and percussion from the vocals, there are many old-style tones. The album alternates more direct moments with slower ones, both in rock and midtempo power metal style (perhaps succeeding better here, as in "Summer Breeze"), but as mentioned earlier, the more thrash moments raise the level of the CD: akin to Anthrax at certain points or even Pantera as in "Join In Me In The Desert".

What really didn't sit well with me is the female vocals: in an album where they ventured towards more classic metal riffs, they retained the voice from their gothic beginnings, although at times it becomes almost raspy. For those who love the union of certain vocal tones with more intense music, it might be a pleasant listen, but for me, it's a hindering combination and I would hardly listen to this CD again (especially because of parts tending towards industrial or others like Lacuna Coil, which stray from the thrash side that I appreciated). An overall simple and direct listen, consisting of 9 tracks for only 34 minutes despite the times never being too fast-paced. Three of these tracks were taken and re-recorded from the previous repertoire, perhaps to maintain some connection to the more gothic style with which they debuted. As a closure, they included the cover "Zombie" by the Cranberries (objectively well done), a clear sign that their roots still remain in more... soft musical environments.

An album without much pretense but well made in its simplicity.