ARCTIS – Arctis

vote
7.0

• Bands:
  ARCTIS
• Duration: 00:44:45
• Available from: 01/11/2024
• Label:

• Napalm Records

Streaming not yet available

Whatever one thinks of “X Factor” style talent shows, they must be recognized for their ability to come up with at least interesting prospects from a musical point of view at each edition: as always, the majority will immediately end up forgotten, while some will shine for just one season and an even smaller portion will find definitive consecration.
Well, it is no mystery that for some years now Napalm Records has become a sort of similar incubator for many young bands with great hopes – very often united by the presence of a girl behind the microphone and modern-style sounds, contaminated with different subgenres – such as the ones present here Arctis, a Finnish group that draws on the tradition of their homeland but declines it in a sound that is ideally halfway between Amaranthe and the latest Within Temptation, with an added pinch of the more recent Evanescence .
The choice of collaborators in the studio is emblematic of the desire to have a boombastic sound – two out of three worked, among others, with Rammstein – and in fact the first impact with “I'll Give You Hell”, “Remedy” and “Tell Me Why” perfectly combines the somewhat rude electronics of Elize Ryd's band with the mainstream sophistication of Sharon Den Hadel, in what we could define as 'pop metal', underlying the intertwining of the delicate vocal lines by Alva Sandström and the muscular riffing of the four instrumentalists.
A formula that is certainly not new but polished in every chrome, from the combative anthem “WWM” to the more danceable “Fire”, with the culmination of the inevitable cover (in this case “Bimbo” by Lambretta, decidedly better known in Northern Europe). ready for heavy rotation on Tik Tok.
Net of the latent originality, the Achilles' heel is probably the ballad section (“Frozen Swan” is well written, but really too obvious) as well as a certain underlying repetitiveness, for which by the end of the album the enthusiasm initial is a bit waned, thanks to a less 'effervescent' B-side compared to the songs placed at the beginning (starting from the final “Theatre Of Tragedy”, whose evocative title promised something more than the umpteenth rereading of the plot heard so far) .
Nothing wrong, however, for an audience raised on bread and playlists: posterity will have to decide whether it will be true glory or yet another meteor, in the meantime a decent debut for lovers of distorted but not too much pop.