INSATIA – Phoenix Aflame

Recall Lene Nystrøm’s vocals of the Dance-Pop group, Aqua, and imagine her fronting a Melodic/Power Metal band; then you’ll have a solid idea of the experience of listening to Insatia’s sophomore release Phoenix Aflame.  Perhaps, a comparison to “Barbie Girl” is too much, but Zoë Federoff’s lead vocals are so thin it’s difficult for her to put any power into Insatia’s Power Metal.

Many bands start an album with a short instrumental to set the mood.  Though one doesn’t find bands starting an album with a tension building intro track complete with lyrics and the cryptic statement “…welcome back to the land of living…”, only to follow with songs that lose every ounce of momentum gained.  The four following songs contain insipid lyrics and overly simplistic melodies, repeat choruses ad nauseum, and often mix it into a wall of sludge.  Nowhere is the sludge effect more evident than in “Sacred” where keyboards, string accents, and layered guitars are combined in a mudslide of sound.  Albeit a pretty average song, the album’s highlight is the title track “Phoenix Aflame”.  The chorus isn’t too offensive, the band lets the guitar out to play a bit, and the mix is open.  Not surprisingly, the band sounds better on the ballad “Not My God” and the Folk-sy “Velvet Road”, which are a better fit for Federoff’s vocals.

There isn’t enough fire in Phoenix Aflame to overcome the album’s soggy mix, and the band’s songs aren’t good enough to distract the listener from Federoff’s deficiencies.

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