Uncreated Light - Whom Should I Blame?

Artem Mokry (guitars, keyboards, writing, arrangements) and Helen ‘Eldiva’ Musienko (vocals) formed Uncreated Light in 2008, following on from their previous band New Land. Here the line-up is completed by Ilia Mamikin (bass) and Viktor Bilan (drums), and the Ukrainians released this their debut album in 2009. The ten songs on the album are sung in Russian, with four of them then repeated as English versions. Stylistically this is mid-period Nightwish, with Helen’s vocals being very much in the style of Tarja Turunen, but the main difference between the two bands is down to the quality of the songs. The musicianship is good, and the arrangements generally okay, but there is just nothing here to really grab the listener. Songs in a foreign language are not an issue for me, and those in their native tongue seem to work better than those that have been Anglicized, but I found my attention drifting, even with the occasional power riffs. It is symphonic metal with extremely operatic vocals, but it just doesn’t seem to have any soul or depth, and there are times when it seems singular as opposed to multi-layered.