Sylver Myst can be added to the long list of Dutch talented bands with a female singer. Think about Within Temptation, Autumn, Epica, After Forever and the list goes on and on.

With "Emotions Revealed", this band skips some stations and put themselves directly into the premier league of the so-called gothic metal scene. Although the music of Sylver Myst has got much more to offer than the ordinairy gothic metal outings. The real work starts after the short instrumental intro "Predestination".

The lengthy "A Life’s Tale" shows you, that there is a lot of resemblance to the bands, that I named here earlier. But of course you can add international names like Nightwish as well. In this long epic song, the voice of Marjolein Hüsken is the most eye-catching part. She also plays the flute, by the way. Something you don’t hear that often, except Delphian, who have a great flute player in Aniek Janssen. In "Lovtred" (and we waited for this moment already!), we hear a brutal male voice added to the sound.

So far so good. In songs like "Depth Of Illusion" and "Devoted Yet Unable" though, we are treated to the more progressive side of the band. In these songs, the instrumental capabilities of the various band members are shown very well.

Clearly, this band is going much further than being an gothic metal band such-and-such. The voice of Marjolein sometimes comes close to Tarja Turunen, when she sings with her best soprano voice, which she can see as a big compliment here.

Besides Marjolein, the band consists of Martijn In ‘t Veld on keyboards, Didier Roumen on guitars, Rob van Dijk on guitar and brutal male grunts, Marco Brugmans on bass and Marc Jaspers on drums. "Waiting For A New Day" starts off very happy at first and I would almost call it the odd one out on the album, but the keyboard solo in the middle of the song lifts it up to another great song, that fits very well to the rest of the album.

An album, that contains thirteen tracks (including an USA bonus track), and has a playing time of almost a full hour. An hour, in which Sylver Myst reveals their emotions and wins the heart of another listener.

Website: http://www.sylvermyst.nl

8/10