ISSA – Sign Of Angels

Issa is a beautiful 26 year old singer from Oslo, Norway. There is no doubt she is easy on the eyes; and with her debut solo album Sign Of Angels she works very hard to make you look beyond the beauty and discover her talent as a commanding lead vocalist. Isabell Oversveen has been working her way into the music business since she was 17 years old. She started out as a demo singer working for various record labels around Norway.

Sign Of Angels contains twelve tracks of Melodic Rock. There isn’t anything cutting edge on this album, and the songs are very straight-forward and clean-cut. There is a wide variety of songwriters and musicians that helped to put this album together. For instance, songwriting contributions came from members of groups such as Hammerfall and Candlemass. The musicians are ex-members of such bands as Masterplan, Helloween, and even Nick Lachey. The result is an interesting mix of hooks, melodies, and riffs.

The star of the album is, of course, Issa herself. She may not have a very wide vocal range, but she seems to shine when she sings in her lower vocal register. If she tries to push her vocals too high, it becomes evident her capacity is being challenged. Unfortunately, many of the songs were written for her to sing in higher keys, which appear to be out of her comfort level.

Materially, even though the album’s tracks are clearly Melodic Rock, the integrity of the songwriting can be challenged, as they could easily be transformed into Pop Rock or even Country. There is nothing about Issa’s vocals that really define her as a “rock singer”, and she doesn’t appear to display an incredible amount of passion in her singing. For the most part, her performance comes off bland and boring.

If there is one shining moment on this album, it is the song “How Will I Know”. Most of the song features Issa singing in her better lower vocal register. She also delivers a very solid performance, which does have passion rarely seen on many of the other tracks. Musically, the song itself has some very good guitar and keyboard riffs.

Overall, this is a very mediocre performance from someone that is trying to prove themselves as a reputable musician in this industry. Although tons of potential exists for Issa to become the next great thing and it’s evident she is gifted with great vocal talent, she comes across as being out of her element on Sign Of Angels. The full spectrum of her talents just aren’t coming through on this album in line with expectations.