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I know you've all been waiting for this (I've seen you literally shaking in anticipation because I have cameras in your homes) so here's my first review out of this batch of 4-5 albums released in the last couple months. this one is called Encrypted by Nightmare. as you can probably tell from looking at the cover they have good aesthetics, music aside. hot female singer, well produced videos, the whole shebang. you can also probably guess it's not the heaviest band in the world. they make some sort of power/melodic/gothic metal thing, with the occasional growl thrown in. since I've been listening to a lot of heavier death/doom lately, hearing clean female vocals on top of relatively safe and chill riffing scared me a bit because I thought I was in for some corny low budget Nightwish (i.e. current Nightwish) slop. it took me a minute to fuck with this style of metal again but eventually my fear went away. it's not terrible by any means Growls range from kinda forced and weak to surprisingly good, so yeah they vary. There are two songs that stand out a little. Incandescent was the most unique track, with neoclassical parts (mainly in the solo) and fun playful melodies throughout. White Lines starts off with a solid intro with a rockabilly-ish riff then goes nowhere. The rest of the track is boring and repetitive; the chorus is so low effort it's by far the worst in the album and probably shouldn't have made the cut at all. I almost skipped this one but I ended up letting it finish because the song was already almost over at that point lol Some parts of the album work well and give off pleasant, mellow, atmospheric vibes. Suddenly this otherwise mediocre album will spark and sound like a Lacuna Coil b-side/deep cut and make you nod your head along. But ultimately most of it is forgettable fodder, there wasn't enough inspiration here for a whole album. A couple songs are still worth revisiting when in you're in the right mood though. 7/10 it's okay