Symphobia // Noc-Turn

Buy @ CDJapan | Buy @ YesAsia (Global)
Buy @ YesAsia (US) | Download @ iTunes Japan

The album opens with the last single, We Are (Feat. Daniel Dice) with a slight addition to the orchestra tune up at the start of the track and additional vocals over this. This is quickly followed by second single, I Do and Rachmaninov. Lightening the mood is the debut single Brand New Day before things are slowed down with the lovely Hungry.

Dark & loud are on the agenda with the track Total Eclipse, again featuring Daniel Dice before we’re back to light & airy with the track I Need Air. Just as quick it’s back to the loud & brash with Play, who’s classical piece (Chopin’s Nocturne) we can’t help feeling has been twisted & distorted into something sinister. 3rd single, What’s Done Is Done is next (see that review here)

We’re not entirely sure what to make of Trigger while SupahFreakinMarvelous & Prove Me brings us back to a more accessible sound. Victory once again features Jade sharing vocals (last heard on What’s Done Is Done) and if we’re honest, we would have swapped this and the final track, Still Standing, featuring Marinoux, again, who featured on What’s Done Is Done, around as Victory has more of a final feeling.

Overall, we’d really like to like this album but we’re struggling to get behind it and we think it comes down to few points: the first is that the majority of the tracks rely heavily on classical pieces and feel that there is just an overload here. The second is that the tracks have too much of a familiarity to each other. Hungry seems a little out of place on the album and we’d love to have seen a few more original tracks like What’s Done is Done just to break the album up a bit more. The third point is simply this: we can’t view this as an album. For us, when listening to tracks mixed with others from other genres altogether, individually, the tracks aren’t that bad. But viewing them together, is when we have issues.

But it’s not all bad. We love Adeesha vocals and think that the duets works well, particularly with Jade & Marinoux as we’ve said previously.While we get a small look at what Adeesha is capable of, it would be interesting to see her step outside of what seems to be a comfort zone as we suspect that there is more to come. There is however a danger of just becoming another voice in the crowd so to speak in doing so. For that reason, we’re going to sit on the fence just now.

Rating: 3/5