Rock singer SymLa-3000 presents her debut album ‘The Spectrums’ an album which fuses her love for heavy metal, rock and japan in a thrilling eleven track record.
After falling into music via the world of Japanese anime as a child, SymLa-3000 began composing her own music leading to this debut which is written and arranged by herself. Drawing influence from bands such as Bullet For My Valentine and Evanescence the record is compelling and blends these well without sounding derivative.
The flow of the record is great, possessing a thematic quality as it focuses on the seasonal changes in japan over the eleven tracks, with great artistry and attention to detail. Kicking off with ‘The Darkness’, which is as the title suggests a gritty, gloomy track backed by huge, distorted guitars which contrasts with SymLa-3000’s airy vocal, resulting in a track that sounds dramatic and theatrical, a great opener.
The record storms through other soaring distorted led guitar tracks on the front end before landing at the intimate ‘Aqua’ which is a testament to SymLa-3000’s versatility as a songwriter as the track opens like a 70’s pop ballad before a soaring guitar solo ties the sound into the rest of the record, definitely a highlight.
For all the records merits and most namely the stellar instrumental performances, I am left on many tracks here and, particularly on the back end, wishing that she took many of the ideas further and bed out the idea more to stand apart from her influences. For example, the closer ‘The Spectrums’ which begins with piano which sets the mood of the track brilliantly, but the idea runs thin and concludes in a similar way too many other tracks, removing some of the impact.
As a singer in her infancy, SymLa-3000 presents an almost mythical sounding album which for all its theatrics and power leaves me craving some variation towards the back end. That being said, many tracks here sounds massive, with great guitar work and spots of great songwriting.