Dark and intense, with moving melodies and catchy riffs, Pandora’s Key tells tales with themes of old, finding connections with modern issues. The band is ever searching for beauty in the darkness.
The melodic metal band Pandora’s Key was formed in Breda in 2016, releasing their EP “Prometheus’ Promise”, with international success. The band has won several competitions over the years, including the FemMe audience award in 2019. In 2024 Pandora’s Key release their debut album “Yet I Remain”, which they will present at a release show at the Mezz in Breda, the Netherlands, on the 27th of January 2024.
With esteemed producer Fieke van den Hurk at the controls, ‘Yet I Remain’represents a new iteration for Pandora’s Key with theirheavy and melodic sound. Explosive, punchy songs like “Falls the Shadow” and “Kindling Ire” prove that ‘Yet I Remain’is the heaviest release to date for Pandora’s Key. Meanwhile, the shimmering soundscapes and multi-layered melodrama of “The Keening” and “Per Ardua” solidify ‘Yet I Remain’as a both musically and emotionally challenging release. It is an album that explores the connections between seeming contradictions, between walls of sounds and quiet introspection, classical storytelling and primal emotions, violence and beauty. The result is an ambitious entry into melodic metal, threading the line between complexity and catchiness that demands the listener’s engagement.
Pandora’s Key will be a good fit for fans of Epica, Nightwish, Kamelot, After Forever and Visions of Atlantis.
1779 (Intro) could have been an outtake from a movie. I hear a very nice symphonic sound and a feel that tells you something is coming.
De Bockereyder was the first single launched from this album. The song mixes male (grunts, growls and everything brutal) and female (heavenly) voices. The tempo is a bit speeded up with guitars on fire and hard hitting drums until we hear a bit of storytelling in Dutch. After that the song explodes and all vocals are in English. People who follow them on regular base have already heard this song getting performed on stage.
Ariadne is a fuelled track that sounds typical like a beaty and the beast heavy metal track. I adore the spooky sounding parts and the piano breakdown. Here you clearly hear how great Vera’s voice sounds like!
Freedom’s Call sounds very hard, but also a bit chaotic and overpowered. The choir, hard hitting drums, the mix of the voices … It all sounds a bit too much as I miss a bit of a structure during the loudest and heaviest moments.
Falls the Shadow is the second single from the album and explodes from the start with a very bombastic symphonic metal sound (but also has a fragile sounding breakdown).
The Keening starts slowly, explodes, slows down etc: the song sounds like sea waves (sometimes getting speeded up by a whirlwind). The symphonic metal part is great.
Kindling Ire explodes from the start with Rik on lead vocals: putting all his energy in the song! It’s the hardest and heaviest song on the album!
The Flying Dutchman starts with Vera’s voice, guitars, drums and a violin! After a while Rik blows out his energetic howls like a hungry wolf!
Icarus is a hard hitter where both singers get their part. I feel like they could use this one as opening track (due to the count off). It also nicely builds up.
Per Ardua sounds a bit softer, with a cheesy touch. The symphonic metal side is ok, the softer ending makes it pure and great! I like the ending and would love to check it out on stage!
Well it’s a good first one, leaving yet some possibilities to grow towards the future. I heard enough good stuff to launch the properly! Thumbs up!
Pandora’s Key are:
Vera Veldhuizen - clean vocals
Rik van Schaaik - heavy vocals
Sebastiaan Pongers - lead guitar
Bram Luiken - rhythm guitar
Regine Lotstra - bass
Dimmy Marcelissen – drums
Streaming (Pandora’s Key channel):
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