Oct 19, 2001 Close-Up Issue #48 Rating: 9/10 Only because a band has a woman behind the microphone, they don't have to play cozy goth metal. Årsta-based AMARAN proves that on their "Promo 2001". We're talking hard and original metal with both nice melodies and razor-sharp riffs. All songs are excellent, but the most hard-rocking of them is the last, highly detailed, song with the somewhat misleading title "Lullaby". That would be a very high-paced lullaby, I'd say. The experienced Johanna De Pierre, whose earlier work include both blues and hiphop, has a very pleasing and accurate voice. Her colleagues are experienced as well. Kari Kainulainen, for instance, handled the "six-axe" in Mourning Sign, with three full-lengths to show for it. Jonas Granvik Sep 21, 2001 Sweden Rock Magazine Issue #2 The Stockholm band AMARAN play a fairly melodic, but yet heavy form of metal. It's obvious that they know their stuff. It is very professional delivered, and interesting enough to last more than one listen, but the songwriting lacks that little something that makes the songs "stick". And that's a shame, because the female vocals in combination with the band's sound causes AMARAN to sound fairly different and difficult to compare to other bands. Martin Forssman Aug 06, 2001 Metal Rules August 2001 Released: 2001, Independent Rating: 3.6/5 Reviewer: Michael De Los Muertos Ah, melodic Swedish death metal with female vocals. Time to pour a glass of red wine, settle down in my comfortable couch, and page through a metal magazine or some warm, fuzzy history book vividly detailing wars, battles, revolutions and other random events causing the grotesque deaths of millions. While this sadly-untitled demo (let's just call it PROMO 2001, which is what appears on the jacket of this little disc) is full of brutality as well as beauty, overall I found it relaxing, and quite enjoyable. Before the term 'female vocals' has you envisioning another Nightwish-themed band, you should know that although the vox are soaring and majestic, the music behind them is heavy, gritty, fast, and punishing. The promo material for Amaran warns me that this was recorded entirely in a home studio, so the stuff sounds kind of fuzzy, but overall I thought the less-than-clear production added an interesting dimension to the thick but melodic riffs that roared forth from my speakers. 'Rusty Warhorse,' the second track of four here, is a standout. I hear hints of In Flames here, and definitely there's plenty of evidence these folks are Swedish (though hailing from Stockholm, not Gothenburg). I didn't like the electronic rhythms on 'Imperfect' but the rest of the song was quite good. The vocals of Johanna DePierre are anguished when appropriate, beautiful when called for, and always strong. I liked the guitar work of Ronnie Backlund and Karl Kainulainen and it is consistently catchy and heavy on all the tracks. The songwriting is also above average. Clearly a lot of thought went into putting this promo together. I find the thought, planning and strategy that goes into a metal song is often more important than what you hear on the speakers (because it dictates what comes out), and certainly from that standpoint Amaran have a leg up on many other new bands. I wish Ms. DePierre's vocals were a little more violent at times. The point is obviously to fuse the beautiful and the harsh, but she could roll with the flow a little better. I also wish Amaran had a more creative name, and it sure would have been nice to see some great artwork covering this disc! But these are all fairly minor criticisms. I enjoyed Amaran's work, and if you're a fan either of female-fronted metal or variations on the Swedish sound, you probably will too. Aug 03, 2001 Edge Of Time AMARAN Promo 2001 The four self-produced songs that complete Amaran's promo immediately show a bright future in their powerful, full of self-confidence, modern metal proposal. Amaran are based in Stockholm and fronted by a competent female vocalist (Johanna De Pierre), whose style could be probably described as a cross between Lacuna Coil's (melodic, clean and effective vocals) and The Gathering's singers (imaginative and more restful profile). Nice, consistent, creative and equally pleasant vocal work. The musicianship level is really set quite high, as Amaran's dynamic compositions aim at blending different metal trends with progressive elements, and also strive in creating something personal and unique in terms of sound. As a whole band, the Swedish outfit is closer to experimental progressive acts such as Aghora, than to more sympho-operatic/speed metal oriented ones such as Nightwish or Sinergy (both Scandinavian names as well). However, this statement does not imply that they might not have clearly focused their horizon in what regards the commercial viability of their music: artistically valuable ideas are well-defined and impeccably traced during all this set of songs. This should be considered as one of the main assets of Amaran's music in that direction. (GM) Jul 30, 2001 Amaran 'Promo 2001' Self-Financed Metalreviews.com Rating: 68/100 Good question ? I'd say Heavy Gothic Metal... The Swedish band Amaran send us their 4 track demo CD for reviewing purpose. The first thing that strikes (beside the poor packaging but well after all it's a demo) is the production. Quite impressive for a demo and I wished all demos would have such a quality. Amaran plays a Heavy Gothic Metal with female vocals. The guitars uses a lot of distortion, in order to achieve powerful riffs while the female vocals (not enough in front in the mix) will calm the overall power of their music. Guitar wise there are some very interesting moments and the songs, although quite short are interesting in their songwriting. I believe this band have what it takes to deliver an excellent and very professional metal, but for that they need to improve one thing, a main one : the vocals. Although the singer have a nice voice, her vocals are absolutely not at the same level of the rest of the music. She doesn't sing bad, don't get me wrong, but I'm convinced she needs to improve. A band that have an interesting sound and who tries to mix heavy aggressive music with a almost pop/gothic way of singing. The contrast is quite interesting, although very disconcerting during first listens (but isn't that always the case with new stuff ?). Their unique sound is probably because of the different background of the musicians. But I have the impression that its the kind of band you love or hate. A band who might very well have a bright future, but only time will tell... keep up the good work. Killing Songs: Received A Kiss Chris Jul 24, 2001 Amaran 'Promo 2001' Terrorizer U.K. Rating: 7.5/10 Featuring Entombed's sound engineer in the band this is quite a professional release here of energetic, upbeat melodic metal, positively drenched in Swedishness and sounding not unlike In Flames with Christina from Lacuna Coil on vocals. Some nice twists and synth embellishment here and there add richness to the sound, although the clarity of the guitars is compromised by excessive fuzz. JH Jul 13, 2001 Amaran - Promo 2001 Esoterica U.K. This is an impressively well-executed demo, clearly showing no lack of funding in any department save the packaging, which is a little on the rudimentary side. That, of course, has no bearing on the melodic, ridiculously Swedish-sounding metal contained on the disc... there'd be points knocked off if Amaran weren't actually Swedish, so suffused is the sound with all manner of trademark Swedisms, from the fat and buzzy but still coherent guitar sound to the actual style of the song-structuring, influences and riffs. Cristina Scabbia from Lacuna Coil fronting In Flames gives a ballpark idea of what's going on here, but since that description makes me want to run away and hide under any large, heavy object I can (I really do hate In Flames! Clayman was an insult to the genre), there must be other factors involved. The sound job is great, another reason why people should buy Macs instead of PCs, I guess, although technical expertise was always on hand since one of the band members has produced albums by Amon Amarth and Entombed, to name just a couple (rem. Ronnie hasn't produced any albums with Entombed or Amon Amarth but has been doing the “livesound” for Entombed for a while now./kari). There is a great deal of energy in the music which a great proportion of the Swedish melodic metal brotherhood forgot to include in their music (a possible explanation of why the genre imploded so mercifully quickly, being more concerned with widdle and not enough with soul), and although it sounds like an obvious thing to do, I can't think of a huge number of bands who've put together this contemporary Swedish-sounding thing with passionate female vocals. With a ready-made fanbase just waiting for them (watch the teenage boys melt at their first Wacken performance!), Amaran look like they have a healthy future ahead of them. Jul 10, 2001 Tartarean Desire Sweden Amaran - Promo 2001 Self-financed, 2001 Rating: 7/10 Amaran is a new Swedish band that was formed in the spring of 2001 with the aim set at taking the concept of metal into the 21st century. I don't know for sure how well they have succeeded in doing this but they have at least created something very unusual and different from what most other bands do. This is probably due to the fact that the members come from many different musical backgrounds including blues, hip-hop, death metal and jazz. The music actually reminds a little of Alas, the new project from Erik Rutan (Morbid Angel) and Martina Hornbacher Astner (Therion). It has a thick jazzy atmosphere that saturates the heavy distorted guitar sound throughout the whole album. Even though the female vocalist Johanna De Pierre doesn't have a voice as strong as Martina's of Alas it is not that far from it. We are used to hearing power and death metal bands coming out of Sweden but Amaran is a fresh new breath of air. If they don't stagnate but keep on developing to get a little tighter then it would be a big surprise to me if they wouldn't start receiving some label offers soon." Vincent Jun 25, 2001 Rock-E-Zine.com The Netherlands Amaran - Promo 2001 4 tracks - 15:20 minutes Rating: 7.0/10 As far as I know this is the first promo of a new Swedish band called Amaran. All the members of the band have different musical backgrounds, varying from metal, jazz, funk and even hip-hop and blues. But fortunately Amaran only plays metal. The promo starts of with an up-tempo song which started very promising with an melodic intro which immediately reminded me of more bands from their native country. And the second thing I noticed was that the vocals don't fit the music these lads play. Female vocalist Johanna doesn't have a bad voice, but not for this music, and especially in the more up-tempo parts. On the other hand you could say that this is something I don't hear that often and even can be described as original. A matter of taste I guess. Musically Amaran plays a mixture of Scandinavian up-tempo thrash parts and more melodic mid-tempo metal. Kind of a combination between the new Dark Tranquility, Nightwish and Soilwork as being one of their little brothers. The production sounds perfect and I first could not believe that this was done with a computer. What can't you do with computers nowadays? And yes, songs as "Received a Kiss" and "Imperfect" certainly show that this is a band with potential. I am curious of how they will sound on their first full-length. So record companies, be prepared, Amaran is aiming for you. Teun Jans May 23, 2001 Metalcrypt Canada Rating: 4/5 Hailing from Sweden, Amaran is a new band that aims to take the concept of metal into the 21st century. That's quite a statement to make and I guess critics and fans will probably be the judge of that. It's good to hear a Swedish band that is not just another Gothenburg clone. The first thing that struck me on this promo CD are the vocals, very melodic, so melodic in fact that they are the type of vocals we usually hear in "popular" music rather than metal. Now mix those with crunching, aggressive guitars and you get a very interesting sound. Amaran pulls this off very nicely. Female vocalist Johanna De Pierre has great control of her voice, definitely nothing to complain about in that department! The vocals also blend in well with the music. I guess I could categorize the music as melodic heavy metal with an aggressive touch. Not much to complain about except maybe the production on the first track which sounds a little bit messy at first, especially the guitars, and the vocal parts are a bit thin-sounding at times. Things get better after a couple of minutes. I wouldn't go as far as say that Amaran break any new ground with this demo, but they are sure good at what they do. 15 minutes is just enough to make you crave for more of this stuff. Let's hope for a full length in the near future. Fans of hard rock, heavy and power metal will most likely like this. Michel Renaud May 18, 2001 Vestmanlands Läns Tidning Sweden (no shit...) Genidrag från metalhopp! Amaran - Promo 2001 (CDs) (-) Det händer inte ofta, men då och då får man en påminnelse om varför man började recensera skivor för en herrans massa år sedan, det är för band som AMARAN's skull! Stockholmsbaserade AMARAN tar mycket från kända band, inget snack om saken, men de gör det på ett sätt som jag skulle offra min högra arm för att själv ha kommit på. De har tagit den sjönsjungande kvinnodelen från The Gathering och Lacuna Coil, power/speedmetal-slingorna från Sinergy, och blandar ut det med den ohämmade aggressiviteten från At The Gates, och vilket succé! Vem har tidigare tänkt på att lägga soulwails över en bakgrund av brutal dödsmetal? Det är ju helt genialiskt! Den här promosingeln innehåller bara fyra spår, och den har stått på “repeat” hela veckan i min lya. Det är bara så, jag vill ha mer, mycket mer, hela tiden. Jag älskar AMARAN! An English translation Genius move by Sweden's new metal hope! It doesn't happen often, but once and again I get a reminder about why I started as a music-critic many years ago. It's for band like AMARAN! There's no doubt that Stockholm-based AMARAN takes a lot from other bands, but they do it in a way that I would give my right hand to have thought of first. They have taken the clear vocals from The Gathering and Lacuna Coil, the power/speedmetal parts from Sinergy, and mixed with unrestrained aggression from At The Gates and what a success! Who have ever thought about putting soulwails over brutal deathmetal? It's pure genius! This promo contains only four tracks and it has been playing on repeat this whole week in my apartment. That's just the way it is, I want more, lots more, all the time. I love AMARAN! Mattias Nilsson