Katra was founded in 2006 by Katra Solopuro and in the same year their first single Sahara saw the light of day. Now 4 years later the Finnish outfit is presenting their 3rd full-length album which is their 2nd international release - Out Of The Ashes.
The album opens up with Delirium, a mid-paced gothic track with heavy riffs and Katra's beautiful voice. Melancholy melodies and heavy riffs are spiced up with a catchy refrain at One Wish Away. The fivesome did a video for this track, so you can get an idea about Katra by watching the video at YouTube:
At If There Is No Tomorrow they slow down after a guitar-driven opening part. An emotional balladesque passage shows Katra's emotional side, but soon the heavy riffs accompany her voice again and then they speed up again. Vendetta is a heavy, riff-based tune and shows Katra quite heavy, but there is nothing memorable about this tune. The opening part of the title track Out Of The Ashes is heavier than Vendetta, but again they easy off and offer a balladesque passage. Luckily they return to the guitar-driven theme which shows the skills of Teemu Mätäsjärvi and Kristian Kangasniemi.
The symphonic balladesque Envy seems to follow the same scheme, just more balladesque. Unfortunately it has nothing memorable and can't touch me. A bombastic symphonic rocker is Mirror and shows that Katra is stronger when doing heavy, powerful songs. Anthem is another typical Katra tune and can't surprise the listener at all. Based on acoustic guitars is The End Of The Scene, well done but again the certain something is missing. The closer is called Hide And Seek, another heavy opening part followed by a mid-paced balladesque passage. It's like variations of the same formula, the songs are simply too much alike.
The main problem of Out Of The Ashes is that there is no real earcatcher and that the band hasn't fully developed their own sound. It's a good, entertaining album, but if Katra can make it with Out Of The Ashes, I doubt. Even if fans of this genre will dig the album, but it's not unique enough to impress the majority of fans.
