Customer Reviews

Driven

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What caught most my attention about this album is the combination of different styles. Combines gutural voices with female gothic-oriented vocals. But I found Orphanage hard to label if someone asked me. Black metal?! Doom?? Death metal?! Gothic??! A little bit of everything. Orphanage plays mostly mid tempos, without speeding too much, but sometimes slowing it a bit, reaching to a more doomy approach. Is not as brutal nor fast as Emperor, but it does have fine orchestral and gothic arrangements. And, why not, adding a progressive and modern input in their music with keyboards and synths.

The main vocalist is Gorefest and Dan Swano oriented. It's a little monotonous, and so is the female vocalist. However, the duo managed to add more versatility to an already versatile band with excellent musicians. I don't know why the band sticked too much to the mid tempos. I mean, the few parts in which they decided to speed up, it just fitted perfectly with Orphanage's style, with punishing riffing guitars and precise drumming.

But don't get me wrong, having a female vocalist and a gothic approach, doesn't mean the band loses heaviness. On the other hand, the band never leaves their death metal side.

Anyway, If you're into any the styles before mentioned, or simple like well done music, you should give "Driven" a try.

This cd does not disappoint. Sure the female vocals aren't that great but they are kept to a minimum which is good but George oosthoeck's vocals are pretty awesome and the music is just in your face and powerful. Highly recommended for fans of doom and gothic metal.

I now have all three of their albums. All great. Imaginative Prog Metal, actually. Kind of like The Gathering with a growling male singer. More uptempo. Love them both. Also kinda like AESMA DAEVA . I Love Therion the most but these are also great bands : Sins of They Beloved , Asrai , MacBeth (tho a bit more Gothic) , Theatre of Tregedy (hit and miss but worth the effort). Of the other over-rated but still pretty good bands in this genre : Nightwish, Within Temptation, Tristania/Sirenia (except "World of Glass" album : WOW! solid A+). Skip Lacuna Coil. More of a hard rock band than a metal band and next to no orchestral influence.

This CD definitely pulls you in. It's like Six Feet Under meets Faith No More meets Meshuggah. The female singer, Rosan van der Aa, does not have a very good voice. Her high parts are beautiful, but her lower parts are reminiscent of "Miss Piggy". She doesn't ruin it though; definitely worth the purchase.

Mmm, listened to some samples on their website (...) a couple of weeks ago. Wow! I was amazed by the perfect combination of grunts and female vocals, together with the right orchestral atmosphere and groovy staccato guitar riffs. Finally I got my copy of 'Driven' three days ago and it hasn't been out of CD-player since then. I'd recommend it to anyone who's into heavy metal with a mix of aggresiveness and beauty, without being too gothic. But be carefull: there's a lot to listen to, so I would say: give it a try or 2.

Urgh, I tried REALLY hard to get in to this album. but, alas, its REVOLTING. Neither of the vocalists are capable of making a pleasant noise! That's what really lets this album down becasue otherwise the rest of the band are fine. It has the potential to sound really good... if the vocalists were different.
actually, George (or whatever his name is) sounds fine when he is screaming but most of the time, he just grunts.. and he sounds awful.
Musically, their sound is quite original, the guitars sound quite harsh, not smooth at all, always hammering some sort of riff. I was told that they sound like early Within Temptation.. but they don't at all in the slightest!
I was throughly disappointed with this album, i tried to listen to it with an open mind, but to be honest, I can't listen to it without feeling utterly revolted.