Edge Of Paradise is a metal band from the USA, founded by singer Margarita Monet and guitarist Dave Bates, releasing five albums to date – ‘Mask’ (2012), ‘Immortal Waltz’ (2015), ‘Universe’ (2019), ‘The Unknown’ (2021), and ‘Hologram’…
…released in 2023 featuring ten songs and forty-two minutes of hard rocking heavy metal come symphonic metal! Two years ago when I first heard Edge Of Paradise, two things blew me away – the band’s music and the drop-dead gorgeous looks of lead singer Margarita! ‘The Unknown’ gave me goosebumps, made my knees go weak, and my heart dissolved into mush – every song on offer a delicious treat to be savoured time and time again! And now the band are back, sending my pulse racing and heart pounding with ten more heavy-hitting songs that span the metal spectrum – Edge Of Paradise, a band that just refuses to be pigeon-holed into only one genre of metal! ‘Hologram’ waltzes into life with the title song ‘Hologram’, replete with a hard-hitting streak that cries out heavy metal, a melody that smells strongly of pop-metal, an attitude that sits in the industrial area, and a powerful vocal delivery from Margarita. And for someone so petite and slim, her vocal power is just incredible!
And with tonnes more oomph, the band thunders into view with ‘This Is Personal’, adopting a slight progressive metal feel as it gets going properly. The vocal delivery here is much more sensual than heard on the album opener, and the guitars, too, display a punch, crunch and groove you’d normally find on the outskirts of thrash metal – Edge Of Paradise showing their phenomenal prowess at sliding effortlessly from one style of music to another. Such diversity across the album’s first two songs, makes me wonder just how diverse the rest of the album is gonna be! Let’s find out eh! With no let up in the heavy-hitting nature heard so far, the band mix a doom metal feel with groove and an immense ground-shaking sensation for ‘Soldiers Of Danger’. The power emanating from my speakers is overwhelming, Edge Of Paradise oozing more power than was needed to fuel the Large Hadron Collider in Cerne, Switzerland, during 2012’s “splitting the atom” experiment! The band are a force of nature, a whirlwind of wonder, and a tsunami of tremendous talent, featuring one of the most beautiful women in the world as their lead singer. And it’s with very weak knees and a mushy heart that I sit here in a dream state, transfixed by Margarita’s looks and voice, almost forgetting I still have an album review to write! Come on, Mathew, get a grip – ‘The Faceless’ is moving the album forward with stealth and sensuality, the band moving in a rockier direction yet losing none of the album’s incredible hard-hitting fury. With balladry and a hymn-like aura only a small step away, Edge Of Paradise do a remarkable job of keeping ‘The Faceless’ from becoming a full-blown power ballad!
With no let up in the unforgiving oomph of ‘Hologram’ (the album), the band boldly march on with ‘Dark’, constantly switching atmosphere and feel to become a sensual swagger of immense intimacy, Margarita delivering one of the most sultry vocal performances I have ever heard. I’ve never kept it a secret that my all-time metal love is the “queen of metal” Doro Pesch, who spent four decades longing after the German beauty. And over the years, many have challenged Doro’s position as my vision of perfection, the one woman I’d happily spend eternity with – but no one has ever come close to tugging so tightly at my heartstrings to make me pull away! Until now – Margarita is the closest anyone has ever come! But Doro is unbeatable, standing tall as “the one” for me, the band striding on with ‘Unbeatable’ – resuming the incredible hard-hitting nature of the early part of the album. Edge Of Paradise is portraying a melodic metal band here, with a catchy chorus accompanying an infectious rhythm and an insane head nod ability! Not to mention the foot tapping ability too, although my feet are finding it difficult to tap right now as my legs remain like jelly! And with no sign of them returning to normal any time soon, the band rocks on with ‘Don’t Give Up On Me’ – a sultry, sensual stroll that straddles the border between metal and rock. As I mentioned earlier, Edge Of Paradise do not fit into any one genre of metal. The band is an enigma of puzzling perplexity! Are they metal? Are they rock? They’re actually both – and everything in between! However you want to categorise the band, just remember this – Edge Of Paradise is fucking brilliant!
And still not letting the heavy-hitting nature slide, the band stomped on with ‘One More Time’, pulling elements of rock into the song’s metal framework and gluing it all together with the band’s magical ingredient! An ingredient that even I’m not sure what’s in it – I only know there are five parts to it! And as the band are a five-piece, it’s a pretty safe bet that the five band members could well be the magical ingredient! Just saying! ‘Basilisk’ – a “mythical reptile with a lethal gaze or breath” – is as deadly as the definition suggests, slithering across the land with a menace not heard anywhere else on the album. The band are predominantly a metal band right now, pounding the ground hard with a heaviness that threatens to open massive cracks and swallow you whole! And as ‘Hologram’ (the album) approaches its end, just a moment of reflection on an album that has exceeded all of my expectations. I thought the band’s previous album, ‘The Unknown’ was good, but this one’s even better! The band shows growth, maturity, and a defiant desire to make music their own way – with no labelling or boundaries to constrain their creativity! ‘Another Life’ closes the album with the lightest feeling of all the songs on offer, Margarita’s voice at its most sultry! For the first half of the song anyway, resuming its more natural power-based delivery as ‘Another Life’ strides on. All ten songs on offer have been loaded with elegance and majesty, performed by a band very much at the top of their game – I’m off to listen again, I simply can’t get enough of Margarita!
Overall, a superb album of hard-hitting metal and rock, ‘Hologram’ is an infectious and compelling listen.
TRACKLIST
Hologram
This Is Personal
Soldiers Of Danger
The Faceless
Dark
Unbeatable
Don’t Give Up On Me
One More Time
Basilisk
Another Life
Edge Of Paradise: Facebook
Release Year: 2023
Label: Frontiers Music s.r.l.
Category: Album
Country: USA
Reviewed by Iron Mathew for Frenzy Fire and Metal-Roos.
