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Metal-Invader.com & Forgotten Scroll
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Julian’s Lullaby – I Can Hear You Thinking
(Self Financed – Promo CD) Total Playing Time: 26:31 Min...Julian’s Lullaby – I Can Hear You Thinking
(Self Financed – Promo CD) Total Playing Time: 26:31 Minutes
What really attracted me into Julian’s Lullaby music is the fact that I discovered something that I am trying hard to find lately: inspiration. Let’s take a break for a moment and ignore what is the exact style of the band and which musical path they are following. Let’s focus to the fact that the six songs included in there are brilliant compositions that would stick into your memory even from the very first hearing. Yes they are catchy but do not expect that poor easy listening stuff that may come into your mind every time you are hearing or reading about a “catchy” song.
Six songs are included in here, painted with the musical colors of melancholy and romance but again do not make the mistake to grab them down on the list of your usual “Gothic Metal” stuff, no this makes no right for their brilliant music. Ok let’s take a look at the musical puzzle of this band: Their main vocal lines are based both into beautiful crystal clear female and male vocals. The female voice of Efrosyne Papamichalopoulou sound so natural and give a special touch into every single melody of each song. Smoothly enough they are one of the band’s trademark having nothing to do with the pseydo-operetic stuff you probably have get used to into similar “atmospheric” releases. Mentioning the second trademark of the band we should of course refer to the male vocals of Antonios Chaniotis that also plays the violin in here. Again the words “crystal” and “clear” should be used to describe this brilliant voice. That has a special color.
Moving towards we would listen musical arrangements by violin, keyboards and piano, smoothly, natural and into the point, they are providing the songs with atmosphere and they are filling them with the color of melancholy. Little secret melodies can be discovered every new time that you would hear the songs, melodies provided by those instruments.
Elias Negrin (ex Disharmony / Decadence) handles all the guitars in here and exactly in this guitar part of the songs we can listen all the force of this band. Expect no weak guitar work in here. The songs are firstly and moreover guitar based, having riffs, melodies and lead guitar themes. So you should take away of your mind all those bands that uses the guitar as a secondary instrument for the matter of “atmosphere”. For example listening to the song “Kiss Me Not (Tonight)” you would discover a guitar driven classic Hard Rock / Heavy Metal tune with a touch of melancholy, enforced by crystal clear vocals and violin.
Finally I must point that the band also enforces their songs with many acoustic guitar parts in a folk noir mood using them mainly as interludes and this is something that adds to the final musical result a lot.
Each song has something special to carry: the melancholic melodies and the sweet female vocals on the opening track ”Eyes Of Gray”, the electric explosion of “Kiss Me Not (Tonight)”, the catchy “Queen In Your Dream”, the “angry” “Hanging Crown”, the great “Queen Of Tears” –with one of the most beautiful and sad choruses I have heard lately- and of course the final “Just For A Day” with its dramatic keyboards.
So what we got here? A great mix of guitar driven Hard Rock and Metal tunes with violin and keyboard fillings and a smooth acoustic touch, everything under the wings of a sweet musical melancholy marked the trademark of beautiful female and male vocals. If you would like to call it simply Atmospheric Metal then it is ok but just for the reason that the specific genre has gone in extremely low standards the latest years I think that this band has much more to offer to the listener than a typical “Atmospheric Metal” band. Well here we got for sure a band not to be missed. The band is currently searching for a label to release their stuff so they are spreading around this is professionally designed and printed promotional CD. I wish the all the best
6/6
Chris Papadakis
http://www.metal-invader.com/hosted/domains/metal-invader.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=66
http://www.forgotten-scroll.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=2136&st=0&#entry50483
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Metal-Archives
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Promising demo with great ideas & catchy melodies - 70%
Written by ruigeroeland on March 3rd, 2008...Promising demo with great ideas & catchy melodies - 70%
Written by ruigeroeland on March 3rd, 2008
Julian’s Lullaby is a three piece Heavy/Folk Metal band from Greece, that released their debut demo “I Can Hear You Thinking” after nearly four years of existence.
The music is quite melancholic (mainly because of the use of the violin) and melodic with quite a heavy dose of keyboard melodies. The folk element in their music is mainly achieved by using acoustic guitar interludes in the songs (and there are some beautiful acoustic parts I might add). Although this description might lead one to think this means the metal influence is next to none, this is not the case at all, because there is also a big role for the guitar.
The vocals are shared between Efrosyne handling the female vocals and Antonius handling the male vocal lines (in addition to playing the keyboard and violin). Both sing clean (no guttural vocals here) and both have a great and pleasant voice. Although I must admit I like the female vocals better with the style of music, because the male vocalist has a sound which would be more suited for a Power Metal band.
The band has some great ideas and has made some good songs that are damn catchy. The band seems to have had a lot of inspiration when writing the material. At times I get the feeling they tried to fit too many ideas and styles in one song (sometimes less is more) and they would have been able to make a larger number of songs with the material at hand.
That being said, the songs do not sound chaotic. Furthermore, the band members are great musicians, because they pull off the switches between styles and ideas with ease.
The production is great, as is the appearance of both the demo and it’s packaging, proving this band means business when it comes to making it in the music biz.
A promising demo packed with great ideas and catchy melodies. I am curious to see how this band will develop in the future.
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forgotten-scroll.net
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http://www.forgotten-scroll.net/review.php?act=s_rev&id=361&rev=Asgardlord
Julian's Lullaby are a...http://www.forgotten-scroll.net/review.php?act=s_rev&id=361&rev=Asgardlord
Julian's Lullaby are a Greek trio that combines metal and hard rock with folk elements. They have been around since 2004, and -unless I'm mistaken- "I can hear you thinking..." is their first work to date.
The band has two basic charasteristics : Both female and male vocals that take turns in lead role according to the song, and melodic violin passes that have a bigger or smaller part also according to each composition's needs. Speaking of the songs, they cover quite a wide range! The ones based on Antoni's vocals lean towards the metal side, especially the fourth track "Hanging Crown", which is a great straight heavy/epic metal composition! When Efrosyne is on the lead role, the songs lean towards the folk side, catering her voice which brought to mind artists such as Lorena McKennit and Enya!
Obviously Julian's style is not my cup of tea, but I really did enjoy several of the tracks on this cd! I'm sure fans of the female fronted folk/atmospheric metal genre, in the vein of older Within Temptation or The Gathering, maybe even the more folk moments of Nightwish, will appreciate the band's quality, both in terms of songwriting and production values.
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metalize-it No 20 April 2009
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Julian's Lullaby - I can hear you thinking
Autoproduction 2008
Grèce
Tout d'abord, en recevant ce...Julian's Lullaby - I can hear you thinking
Autoproduction 2008
Grèce
Tout d'abord, en recevant cette démo, on admire déjà le package très recherché dans lequel le CD est glissé. Le trio
grec de Julian's Lullaby sort ici sa première réalisation après 4 ans d'existence et le moins que l'on puisse dire c'est
qu'ils maîtrisent déjà très bien leur matière ! Leur musique est assez riche, du heavy metal mélodique teinté de folk
grâce à l'utilisations des claviers, violons et guitares accoustiques. Les vocaux sont partagés entre chant féminin et
chant masculin (très typé heavy metal justement) qui se complètent très bien. La production étant claire et de qualité,
les 6 morceaux qui composent cette démo en ressortent grandis. On peut parler d'un excellent début et des compositions
fourmillant de bonne idées qui font qu'on attendra la suite avec impatience.
http://www.julian-lullaby.com/
Dornenkrone
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www.broadjam.com (indie music net)
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…They heard us thinking… We can hear them saying… (bands & musicians on independent music network ww...…They heard us thinking… We can hear them saying… (bands & musicians on independent music network www.broadjam.com – US)
Visit us on www.broadjam.com/julianslullaby
JUST FOR A DAY
…Like the piano intro...sweet! Flashes of Evanescence, Within Temptation and Lacuna Coil run through my mind as I listen. Vocalist has a sweet angelic tone...really nice! Band is really together and compliment each other well.
Don't change a thing guys - you have a really good full sound…
(B.L.T.S) - US
KISS ME NOT TONIGHT
Cool grooves and a great deal of potential. Good ideas with the female harms. Good voxs. Suggest to "kill" or really nail the parts with conviction (more) cuz you can. Just do it and get everybody's attention. Song could get good attention. Conviction. Execution is there. Put the attitude in there!
(Army Of Souls) - US
…Good vocal performance. Like the blend of male and female voices. Overall good instrumentation. … If you were looking to achieve an 80's rock/metal sound? Then you were right on the money with this tune…
(Passin Throu) - US
HANGING CROWN
Good feel and sound...would like to hear the vocals sooner!A good blend of oldschool/newschool …
(Army Of Souls) - US
OCEAN OF TEARS
…Good vocal performance. Especially the Female vocals.
(Passin Throu)
EYES OF GRAY
Great vocals and really good feel. Great effort …
…Constructive would say that I "heard" male vox in the beg then when the female vox kicked in she is great, but not hooky. My help is to get with something really cachy and forget the darkness. You have great potential. Give it your all.
(Army Of Souls) - US
…Great acoustic intro. Drums have a nice tone to them as well. Great vocal range and dynamics…
(Passin Throu) - US
…i love the acoustic guitar (Wormjams)
