Victoria K. – Essentia

Label:  Rockshot Records
Releasedate: 24 April 2020

Melbourne’s Symphonic Metal singer/songwriter Victoria K made her mark on the rock and metal scene with the release of the debut single “Monster” in 2016, featuring guitar work by Brett Garsed. “Monster” brought with it radio play nationwide and in the UK and earned Victoria K a space among the Top 5 Finalists for the 2016 Australian Independent Music Awards and second place in the Australian Songwriting Association competition.

This young talent’s songwriting and compositional influences include Evanescence, Within Temptation, Nightwish and Kamelot amongst other current bands in the European Metal scene and her music has been likened to be a blend of these influences. Victoria K has racked up hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube with her own original creations and through featured videos alongside a number of talented musicians covering a plethora of songs. Victoria K’s covers include Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper”, Nightwish’s “Last Ride of the Day”, Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” and Kamelot’s “Insomnia”, the latter of which received attention from the band themselves on Twitter and led to a meeting of talents when the American power metal band found themselves in Melbourne on their 2018 ‘The Shadow Theory’ Australian tour.

What started out originally as a solo project, Australia’s Victoria K has now developed into the current band structure with each member bringing their own energy and experience to the collective.

It is always nice to see new bands trying out the female fronted / symphonic / goth metal music scene. The emergence of Victoria K. means the current established bands, where this band get their influences from, now have to content with serious competition.

The first track ‘Freedom Unchartered’ hits you like a boxing glove, right in your sould. Hard and oozing with ethereal mezzo-soprano voices combined and deep growls, courtesy of Sheri Vengeance. Fine composition with rythmic drums and solid bass riffs. You can immediately hear where they get their influence from. At four-and-a-halve minute it is quite a long track, but very enjoyable!
The next song, called ‘Surreal’, starts softly before the vocals and instruments kick in. Victoria’s voice, at times, resembles other female vocalists such as Amy Lee (Evanescence) and Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation). Composition is quite classical with a slight hint of arabian influences, very reminiscent of Nightwish at times.

‘Forsaken’, a very popular track title in this genre, is quite faster than the previous ones, but nevertheless very pleasing on the ear. Victoria’s vocals, with extreme high pitched notes, at the front and Sheri’s growls ‘echoing’ in the background.
The fourth track, Matrix – nothing to do with the movie – is again very fast and I can imagine driving along listening to this track, only wanting to travel faster and faster.

‘Shroud of Solitude’ starts of quaintly, with classical instruments slowly flowing into a serene ballad. The kind of track you need after the previous one. 😉 Victoria’s voice against the heavier guitars and drums forms the perfect combination in this awesome composition.
Track six ‘Haunting’ slowly builds up to an outburst of heavy rythmic guitars riffs and percussion, then going into a eerie moment where Victoria’s voice actually sounds haunting. Midway the song, it sounds not too dissimilar like Within Temptation.

The high pitched intro of ‘Freaks’ will awaken you from the trance ‘Haunting’ got you into. A typical female voiced metal track, which showcase the band’s abilities very well; from the instrumentalists, the writer(s), composer(s) and the vocalists – everything and everyone fits like a glove.
Track 8 ‘Mist filled Sky’, again is one of those eerie sounding tracks where the music and vocals draw you in until you get awakened by the rapid riffs and drums as the song kicks it up a notch into a faster, proper metal track.

The next track ‘Humanity’ is totally different from the rest on this album, but nevertheless very pleasing on the ear and grabs your attention.
The last track ‘Lacuna’ – which means ’empty space’ – is nearly 5 minutes long and filled with bombastic sounds combined with surreal vocals. It is a good indication what Victoria K. as a band are capable of and again showing the established female fronted metal bands what kind of force they are.

In my humble opinion, this band is one which will have a great future if they keep doing what they do and learn along the way to create a sound which differentiates them from all the other established bands in this genre. It just shows that great metal bands don’t just originate from (northern) Europe, but that the chicks and blokes form ‘Down Under’ can play mean metal too!

Band line up:

Victoria Kokkinos – Vocals
Sheri Vengeance – Extreme Vocals (Black Like Vengeance, ex. Ne Obliviscaris)
Julia Mammone – Guitar (Enlight)
Martin Kawaler – Bass (Black Like Vengeance, ex. Ten Thousand)
James Davies – Drums

Links:

Official site: https://www.victoriakmusicofficial.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VictoriaK2004
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/victoriakofficial/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victoria_k_official
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4hQDGDErqcmakKo-wVjWoA