By: Tordah

Posted: Dec 21, 2005

"Vantage" is the 5th album from the strangely named act Fall Of The Leafe. Drawing influences from gothic metal, progressive rock and hard rock they have always done their own thing and you'll have to hear for yourself what they're all about. The first thing you'll notice when listening to the album are the somewhat strange vocals from Tuomas Tuominen. His vocal-lines are unconventional and his voice sounds unlike any other vocalist I've heard. At first I found the singing to be a bit annoying but I found myself liking his quirky style more and more as I listened to the album several times. "Vantage" is an album that slowly grows on you with every spin. The same could be said about all of the other Fall Of The Leafe's albums as well.

Musically, Fall Of The Leafe is far from a heavy band. Some might not even consider them a metal-band anymore now that they have abandoned the growling vocals completely. However, if you're into fairly complex hard rock with many sound-layers and experimenting with different guitar-effects this might worth checking out. There were a couple of tracks on the album that I thought were pretty good. 'The Fresco' is a good album opener which introduces you to Tuominen's peculiar vocal-lines accompanied by good musicianship from the rest of the band. 'But The Ghosts Here' has several good and catchy melodies that keeps things interesting throughout the song. If only the rhythm section was heavier this track and so many other could have been really cool. 'In The Silence Of The Sand' is among the fastest songs on the album with it's fast-paced drumming and powerful vocal performance by Mr. Tuominen. The song ends with a nice rock-inspired guitar melody. The album closes with 'The End Of Harvest' with it's beautiful piano intro and ethereal guitar melodies. A melancholic ballad type of song that grabs your full attention. Definitely one of the strongest and most memorable tracks on the album.

The biggest problem I have with Fall Of The Leafe is that it feels like they can't decide if they want to play metal with progressive tendencies or mainstream-inspired hard rock. The music is too soft for metalheads and too complex and unconventional for a mainstream public. The result of this is that the band still remains unknown and overlooked by both sides, even though the music can be quite good sometimes. There are several songs here that I really enjoy but the rest are unfortunately not all that memorable. They have nice melodies and everything but in the long run it gets kind of repetitive and they sound too much like each other. Still, this is my favorite Fall Of The Leafe album and it puts their previous offerings to shame. If you want something with unique vocals, nice melodies and atmosphere dowsed in a hard rock production then "Vantage" might be worth a try.

Rating: 6/10

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