Artist:  Isis Child
   Title: Strange Days
   Label: YesterRock  

'Strange Days' is the second release from Isis Child, a band that saw the unification of guitarist, songwriter and producer Freddy Mazzucco and vocalist Nathalie Pellissier, who along with Christophe Canto on bass, Rob Harris on drums, first released their debut album 'Aileurs' back in 2008.

In 2009 they started working on the follow up and now in 2011 we see the fruit of their labours with ‘Strange Days’, the band's first English album.  From the original line up only Mazzucco and Pellissier remain, but they are joined on this new release by Alain Rinnallo, Hugo Adam, Mathias Lechartier on bass, David Zecca and Chris Druin on drums.  Completing the list of dignitaries, we have Robert Geoffroy and Julien Spreutels on keyboards, with the icing on the cake being Pelle Saether from Grand Design, who handled the mixing and mastering of the album.

So with almost a cast of thousands behind it, does this album tick any of the boxes for this reviewer?  I would say so!  With Pellissier’s powerful and rich vocals, and Mazzucco’s sublime guitar work being just two of the many high points of this release.  With monster moments like the opening barrage of ‘Let’s Take A Walk’ and ‘Dancing’, both tracks show what a powerhouse vocal Pellissier has in her arsenal, along with the torrent of big riffs from Mazzucco himself.

The album takes a break from the all out hard rocking, as Pellissier shows her gentle side with the power ballads ‘Can't You Hear Me’ and even more, the stunning ‘I Love The Way’, before injecting a bit more venom into proceedings with ‘Loneliness’ and the excellent hard rocking ‘If You Wanna Be Mine’.  On which Pellissier once more delivers a really excellent driven vocal performance throughout.

This album just keeps on delivering the goods, as each track unfolds, each one showing that Isis Child have a big future in the Metal and Hard Rock genres, with the album closing as strongly as it started, with great lick filled tracks like ‘It’s Always The Same’, the fantastic ‘Looking For The One’ with it big chunky bass lines.  The soar away melodies of the title track ‘Strange Days’ and the funked out rock of ‘Even If'.

That's all before things come to a close with two absolute stormers, first up the haunting melody ridden ‘Someone’, before the true album closer, the equally impressive ‘Stop Looking Down On Me’, which wraps up what I regard as one of the finest female fronted rock albums of the year.
 Tracklisting:

1. Let's Take A Walk
2. Dancing
3. Can't Hear Me
4. I Love The Way
5. Loneliness
6. If You Wanna Be Mine
7. Its Always The Same
8. Looking For The One
9. Strange Days
10. Even If
11. Someone
12. Stop Looking Down On Me

                  

 

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