EVEN VAST - "OUTSLEEPING" (MAUSOLEUM)
EVEN VAST - "OUTSLEEPING" (MAUSOLEUM)
Never heard of Even Vast before, and to be honest I think it's one of the silliest and most semantically pointless band names this side of Scary German Guy and Toed the Wet Sprocket. I am pretty certain "Outsleeping" is a non-existent word in English as well, but I guess you can always interpret that as poetic freedom.
I like it very much when prejudices are proved wrong. When I popped the CD in the player I had pretty much expected 'the usual' from Italy, i.e. another epic neoclassical power metal (i.e. Rhapsody clone) outfit. Instead I got a laid-back rock sound with a female vocalist that isn't your everyday run-of-the-mill soprano.
So "Outsleeping" starts off rather nice, a style of music that you don't hear every day. There's a little Dominion in there, a little Left Hand Solution, and a lot of melancholy. Is that gothic, maybe? I don't know. After three songs, however, you can draw no conclusion other than that it is very much more of the same throughout the rest of the album. "After All" and "Defeated" are different to the rest (as well as the Cure-like instrumental title track), but other than that the remaining two thirds are a bit too sleep-provoking for me: The guitar riffs are too repetitive and the drums are too slow (usually < 60 bpm) while vocalist Antonietta Scilipoti continues to sing the same style of vocal melodies. She can undoubtedly sing, but I hope that future Even Vast music will have more variety.
RK
Written May 2003