The explosion of female singers in metal is no longer a strange phenomenon; we have some ladies headbanging on every genre (maybe not in black metal), perhaps Angela Gossow is the most recognizable face in extreme metal right now, in thrash we have the new Jim Durkin band Dreams of Damnation been lead by Loana DP Valencia, and off course everybody is familiar with the gazillion gothic metal bands been headed by beautiful women, Lacuna Coil, Within Temptation, Sirenia, Beseech and many, many more, so what’s different and interesting about Shadowside? Yeas they have a female singer and composer in Daniela Nolden, so is she any good or just a rarity to attract listeners?

First off Nolden is more than just a singer, she is one of the founding members of the band the other been Bill Shadow; her job goes beyond singing, she also plays the keyboard and writes many of the songs in this their debut full length, so yeas she is good, her vocal work is powerful yet it manages to keep a female sent that gives the songs both power and melody.

But what about Theatre of Shadows, the record doesn’t have anything out of the ordinary, it is a power metal album, well played, well produced but it doesn’t have anything that will make it stand out the test of time, there are a couple of great songs that make this a worthy listen like the extremely catchy “Vampire Hunter” and many others that display all the ranges in which Nolden can deliver, there are some keyboard inclusions but they are not fundamental for the songs, the guitars are strong but it would have been nice to hear a couple of more solos.

The extremely fast “Illusions” includes a very nice solo, as well as a good keyboard, both elements give the song a wider dimension providing Shadowside with a little taste of personality; still the album as a whole remind you of many other bands in the genre, perhaps this Brazilians like many others from that great country are a bit more melodic than the standard in power metal.

“Queen of the Sky” shows us the sweet side in Nolden, displaying a gorgeous vocal work that fits perfectly with the mood of the song.

Believe me when I say this, if you like power metal you are going to love this record, but you are not going to find anything on it that will make you forget about your old Halloween or Iron Maiden albums, so if you like power then give this a try because is catchy and extremely well played, the production is nice as well.