Scarlet Aura - 2017 - Memories

(48:35; Outlanders Productions)

Track list:
1. The Final Countdown 5:40      
2. Breaking the Law 2:46      
3. Don't Talk to Strangers 5:03      
4. My Ugly Boy 3:35      
5. Wasting Love 5:33      
6. A Past and Future Secret 3:47      
7. If I Close My Eyes Forever 4:56      
8. Zombie 5:25      
9. Eye of the Tiger 4:19      
10. We're Not Gonna Take It 4:30      
11. All We Are 3:01

Line-up:
Aura Danciulescu - vocals
Mihai Danciulescu - guitars, vocals
Catalin Ungureanu - bass, vocals
Sorin Ristea - drums
with:
Romeo Cividing - keyboards


Romanian band Scarlet Aura decided that for their second studio album they wanted to pay their respects to some of their musical heroes by way of recording a covers album. The result is the album "Memories", which was released in 2017 through Finnish label Outlanders productions.

Cover albums have been something of a headache for reviewers throughout history, as it is difficult to try to decode the contents and measure the experienced quality of the cover versions without also measuring them up against the originals. In some cases, especially when a band substantially alter or decide to deconstruct a song, trying to find something sensible to say obviously becomes even harder.

In the case of Scarlet Aura, we have a band that to a lesser or greater degree tries to make the songs they cover their own, by slightly altering them to become closer to their own in general style and sound. This approach to cover versions can function really well, for my own sake I have pointed towards Aurora's version of 'Life on Mars' as a good recent example of this, and from earlier times Nazareth's version of 'The Ballad of Hollis Brown' is another excellent example of how one can go about this.

Scarlet Aura appears to specialize in a more melodic variety of hard rock and heavy metal, and their takes on the classics here range from being a bit ho-hum to being on the pleasant side of matters in my view. If 'Breaking the Law' and 'We're Not Gonna Take It' are songs that should have keyboards present is a topic open to discussion, but the songs are good and works well also in the versions we find on this album. Other songs are rather less impressive for me, and for a reason that comes down to subjective taste: When I find that a song requires a certain level of power and tone control to function, for any cover version of it to function the singer needs to either have a similar level of power and control or to be able to provide another superior dimension to the delivery that replace this requirement.

Cue the earlier Aurora reference, where emotional power is successfully replaced with a superior emotional control over a delicate and frail delivery in her take, and the Nazareth reference where the vocals on their version of the song ooze raw power and desperate emotion. While vocalist Aura in this band have a good take on a more sensitive emotional delivery, as exemplified on 'My Ugly Boy', her other specialty is a liberal use of vibrato rather than power, and with a tendency to hit a raspy, punk attitude vocal style when pushing it. The latter vocal style could have been used more on this album, in my opinion at least, with a song like the aforementioned 'We're Not Gonna Take It' just about tailor made for that specific vocal style. But for the songs that demand a powerful and commanding voice and vocal presence, for me at least the versions on this album falls a bit flat.

This will obviously be an interesting album for fans of Scarlet Aura, both to hear some of the music that inspired the band and also to listen to their specific versions of those songs. But for others the general style of the band and the subjective taste in lead vocal preferences will be crucial elements for deciding whether or not this is a production that merits an investigation. If melodic hard rock with a distinct keyboard presence is within your interest range, and you tend to enjoy female vocalists that use liberal amounts of vibrato as a specialty, this album might just be worth a listen.

Olav M. Björnsen, February 2023

Links:
https://www.scarletaura.com/
https://www.facebook.com/outlanders.productions/