INDIGO DYING – Indigo Dying

Labels shape bands and styles, create a profile of their own, and sometimes labels are run by men who just enjoy what they do. This is the case with Indigo Dying, which is not a band but a project initiated by Frontiers boss Serafino Perugino. The main reason was Chilean singer Gisa Vatcky whose voice is nothing less than beautiful. No wonder she already worked with big names like Placido Domingo, Meat Loaf, Melissa Etheridge, and Andrea Bocelli. True, not really Metal, and this can easily be said for Indigo Dying also.

But we don’t expect really hard stuff from Frontiers, but well done AOR, Melodic Rock, sometimes even Melodic Metal, and Mr. Perugino’s company does seldom disappoint their clientele. Completed with several good studio musicians, this album will go down well with said target group. It may be a simple recipe, and it may not be too original, but it is certainly one thing: well done.

Gisa Vatcky definitely is worth to be discovered as she manages to rock through some harder tracks with the same intensity as she put the finishing touch on several wonderful ballads. As a comparison for the “heaviness” of the album mix equal parts of Pat Benatar, The Gathering, Heart, and Evanescence, to be enjoyed at the open fireplace. The opening duo “All I Never Wanted” and “Hear Me” rock just fine, before they culminate into a beautiful power ballad, “Breathe In Water.” While the third track is everything but Metal Express Radio material, it is the stuff all listen to when no friends are around, and some probably put on repeat when female company is expected …

Some of the tracks are mainstream airplay material, although it is doubtful that many stations will have the album in their repertoire: “Taken,” “Island,” or “Remember (IOU)” would make a nice change from the same 100 tracks alternated in heavy rotation week after week on millions of exchangeable stations around the world. Luckily you don’t have to rely on that as you found Metal Express Radio…

Only once on the album a track is just too much of typical commercial radio eighties’ Pop: “Real Life Fairytale” could have been left out, and nobody would have complained. But, as if to make up for it, the next track is the real counterpart as once on the album, the guys and the lady actually show teeth: “Far Enough” is a real Hard Rock track! A pleasant surprise that keeps the album from being monotonous. The album ends with a ballad, not uncommon for this style, and leaves a warm feeling in one’s guts – or was it heart?

One information was kept from you so far, which surely makes the album even more interesting to the connoisseur: Michael Kiske (on “Breathe In Water”) and Mark Boals (on “Superman” and “Far Enough”) lend their talent to Frontiers and create a nice counterpart to Gisa’s voice in the strategically placed tracks 3, 6, and 10. Why that was kept from you so far? Because Gisa Vatcky is a great singer in her own right, and naming the guest musicians would have distracted you from the fact that this album would be worth getting even without the two guys!