Angtoria - God Has A Plan For Us All

Genre: Gothic Metal
Name: Angtoria
Album: God Has A Plan For Us All, 2006
Music begets more music

I cam across this album while researching My Dying Bride, and discovering that Aaron Stainthorpe had done some of the vocals. So, after a brief excursion to Youtube, I decided that this band must be worth a listen, and I wasn't too disappointed.

This band has quite some musical heritage: The singer, Sarah Jezebel Deva, was a member of Cradle of Filth, the brothers Chris and Tommy Rehn have been in Abyssos and Moahni Moahna, respectively, and the bassist is Dave Pybus of Cradle of Filth (again) and Anathema and the drummer appears to have been from a certian My Own Grave (not the one that features on this album, however. Originally just Deva and Chris Rehn, who met while touring together, after a successful demo including the cover of a Kylie Minogue song, the band featured on a compilation and then recorded this in 2006.

As for the orchestration, you can clearly here the influence of Cradle of Filth in the extensive use of orchestras - this also is the result of C. Rehn's idea for a completely orchestral project. Throughout this album the orchestra, and especially the strings, provide a melodic background, to the extent that guitars are few and far between. However, the one purely orchestral piece does not live up to the rest of the album - the introductory track Awakening seems, whilst not quite atonal, to be lacking an actual melody, and is more a series of themes, placed one after the other, swiftly changing and never developed. Fortunately, in later songs Angtoria easily show that they are capable of much more.
Aside from the orchestra, there is also exceptional use of keyboards and synthesisers, especially in Suicide On My Mind, which add an interesting touch of variety from time to time. The percussion section is also very good - whilst the drums never seem divinely inspired, there is an interesting use of rhythm from time to time, and the more relaxed and mellow percussion on What The Wise Lady Said. Indeed, The Addiction sees the use of very good drums, reminiscent of E. S. Posthumus

However, I did have one or two problems. I won't mention about how dull it is that the entire album is in common time, but I will express a personal dislike for the singer's voice. Whilst in Cradle of Filth, she was very good; however, in this album, aside from the fairly predictable vocal melodies, there is just something, some sort of twang in Deva's voice that I can't get along with. However, that is just my opinion, and she is a very capble singer - in the intro to Confide in Me, there is an excellent moment when you start of listening to a violin, and then, slowly and subtley, it changes, until you have an epiphany when you realise that what was once a (very good) violin melody is now being sung, but you couldn't pinpoint the change at all. Besides this, there is a bit of variety created by the use of death growls in Original Sin, which create an interesting change whilst remaining comprehensible. Another variation is found in Original Sin, where Stainthorpe makes his token appearance with a spoken contribution.

In addition, the almost obligatory use of breaks does tend to wear a bit as the album progresses, since there is a moment in almost every song where everything just stops for a second or two, then carries on. As a musical device, it is somewhat overused, and rarely well executed - look at Suicide On My Mind. However, once again, there are moments where it is very, very good: for example the breaks in Deity of Disgust are excellent.

In conclusion, therefore, I would say this is a good album, but not a great one. It has its moments, but it also has its flaws. Overall, however, it is worth a listen, and I'd recommend it to any Gothic metal fan.

Summary: Interesting and well orchestrated Gothic metal, but with a few problems that need a bit of a patch

Lyrical Themes: "abuse in general"

Rating: 6/10

Track listing:
1.The Awakening
2.I'm Calling
3.God Has a Plan For Us All
4.Suicide On My Mind
5.Deity Of Disgust
6.The Addiction
7.Six Feet Under's Not Deep Enough
8.Do You See Me Now?
9. Original Sin
10. Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Scorned
11. Confide In Me (as made famous by Kylie Minogue)
12. That's What The Wise Lady Said


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