However, that sounds more harsh towards Visionatica than is actually fair, they deserve a bit more credit.
As a matter of fact, you get exactly that what you asked for when you picked this release: solid symphonic metal. Visionatica’s Enigma Fire is no exception to this unwritten rule. Where bands from other genres might stray from their original paths to explore other influences every now and then, this is usually not the case with bands operating in this genre. There’s really no two ways about this: Visionatica plays female fronted symphonic metal, plain and simple. Album closer Rise from the Ashes packs all of the above into one song, ending this album in style. Next up is Roxana, The Great, a rather powerful song, one of the highlights of the album, next to To the Fallen Roma and Secrets of the Ancestors, in between which the inevitable ballad Incomplete offers a moment of rest. If ever there would be a competition to find a true female fronted symphonic metal song, this song would definitely be a contender. The guitars growl and howl, the bass humms, the drums break the rhythm, the vocals are high pitched, bordering forced at times and all this is merged into a bombastic whole.
Fear pretty much taps the same vain, except for the fact that the Eastern influences are completely absent here. And yet, though most definitely not a novelty, the very subtle Eastern influences add some variation that distinguishes Visionatica’s music to some extent from the vast majority that plays the ‘traditional’ music in their genre. The Pharao, next in line, does a better job here, leaving no doubt that Visionatica remained true to their preferred genre. Opener and intro Amari Sudbina Kali has a nice atmosphere to it, with a little Eastern touch, something that proves to be a recurring thing throughout this release, but it in fact makes me none the wiser as to what this album will be all about. Having heard Force of Luna before I’m curious to find out if their persistence was worth it and payed off. It’s called Enigma Fire and it offers nine songs stretching only a little under forty minutes of music.
Nevertheless they persisted, resulting in the release of their second full-length last month. It was received with mixed critics due to its supposed lack of originality, something that has been an issue with many bands operating in the small, tightly bordered corner of the music world known as female fronted symphonic metal and whose inhabitants allow very little room for manoeuvre. After a few years of radio silence the band, evolving around ‘singing wolf’ Tamara, officially presented itself when its first feat of arms, a single called She Wolf, was released in 2015, followed by their debut full-length called Force of Luna the year after. Though well after the initial madness around female fronted symphonic metal hype, they nevertheless deliberately faced the quite difficult task of establishing themselves in a closed, at that time pretty overfed corner of metal. Being formed in 2013 the line-up has been quite consistent with Tamara Amedov as vocalist, Manuel Buhl on guitar, Gerhard Spanner on drums and Tim Zahn on bass. Visionatica is a relatively unknown player in the female-fronted symphonic metal genre hailing from Nürnberg, Germany.