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Review:
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The seductive Argentinean Ivana Horbatenko moved to
the States to further her musical career, where she met
multi-instrumentalist Mexican, Israel Mendoza, and this
is the first fruit of their union. Ivana has a genuine trained
operatic voice, with a lovely Spanish inflection, and delightful
touch of Edith Piaf’s Little Sparrow torch singer (ask you
great granddad), or for younger readers, a bit like Ayin
Aleph, but without the craziness. Before you start making
up your own versions, either clean or involving whips, S.M.Q.
stands for Symphony Metal Queen. After the strangely creepy
intro you get 11 prime slabs of up-temp opera metal with
lyrics in Spanish and English. Picks include the glorious
‘Un Blanco Cisne’, the galloping ‘El Alquimista’, the dramatic
‘Symphony Metal Queen’, the thunderous ‘Angel de la Muerte’,
and the headbanging ‘Lobo’. The centrepiece is the lovely
piano ballad, ‘La Rosa en el Pantano’, which sounds like
a French torch song, even though it is Spanish, it conjures
up images of a rain lashed Parisian blackout during the
occupation, where danger lurks in every shadow, as a mysterious
blonde asks you for a light in the faint limelight glow,
is she your contact from the resistance? The production
is crystal clear, but I would have preferred more bottom
end and I found the guitars a little trebly, but a twiddle
of my knobs sorted it out. If you are missing Tarja era
Nightwish, then this will be sweet music to your ears, as
Ivana so eloquently puts it in the wonderful ‘Bienvenido
a tu Eden’, ‘Come with me! See your destiny! You will love
all I’ve got for you, all my music! Come with me! See your
Destiny! You will love, love this symphony!’ I couldn’t
put it better, better myself, your destiny is calling, calling
you to CD Baby, your wallet is opening, opening itself,
and you are paying, paying the lovely lady. 8.5 out of 10.
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