Review from Dutch Metalzine Aardschok

The Dutch band Wings Of Fury has gone through some difficult years. Co-founder Wilbert Beurskens left the band, through which Wings Of Fury not only lost a guitarplayer, but also a vocalist and a lyricist. In the meantime the band has recovered from this and found a good replacement in Erno Noorlander (ex- Drowning in Tears). Together with him the new CDemo 'Everlasting Emptiness' has been recorded. The three songs show that Wings Of Fury is back on the right track, but also that there is a lot of work to be done. The three songs sound a bit dry and lack some smoothness. I miss warmth in the songs and smooth, catchy melodylines. The quality is surely present, but their performance needs improvement. As professional as the artwork looks, the music should sound too. However, I do have faith that that will happen. For those that like metal with a female opera singer, this CDemo is definitely interesting.
Anita Boel (Aardschok)

Review on Metal Maidens

Reviewed by: Toine van Poorten (Reviewed: November/December 2005)

We have introduced this band to you already a bit closer, and now we finally get to hear more music from them. And when I listen very carefully to these three songs here, I must admit that I am listening to a band that deserves to be signed by a good record label, because this is the best I’ve heard of WINGS OF FURY so far. The balance of progressive and orchestral music on one side and loud brutal riffs on the other side has received a good place in the sound of the band. Add to this the great voice of frontlady Miriam Dammers, and we can speak of a very fast rising star on the horizon of the Dutch heavy metal scene. And I do hope, that other people will finally discover the talent of this band, too. Gosh, there must be an awful lot of deaf people in the music scene, sitting behind their desk, while being clinically dead already. Otherwise they would have picked up their trendy cell phones to get in touch with this band, after hearing the first notes of opener “The Storyteller”. A song with some great musical ideas, that are not just good ideas, but are also performed very well by a band, that has matured a lot, since their last demo stuff. And if this song won’t do the trick, then “Heaven’s Gate Of Freedom” should do it. Wild grunts are mixed with the opera voice of Miriam, and the band easily switches from orchestral parts to loud and wild gallopping beats without any hesitation. The production of this demo is so good, it could easily be transferred directly to the bands’ new CD. Listen to the wild drum beats of Pascal at the end of this song. It’s like he has to run for his life, because he is chased by a four-headed dragon. Okay, you can say that these record label guys are overwhelmed with music all day long. But if I’d receive a demo like this under my nose, and I hear a song like CD closer “(The Whispering Of) A Nameless Fear”, I would remember again what my task exactly is. And that is to sign well-talented bands like WINGS OF FURY. The message will be clear by now, I hope. This is top notch material of a band, that is just one step away to becoming rich and famous like the EPICA’s, AFTER FOREVER’s and the WITHIN TEMPTATION’s in this scene. Or am I the only one here with a good pair of ears on my head, because all that remained after the music stopped was an ‘everlasting emptiness....’ MAGNIFICENT STUFF!!!!

Review on Metalfan

Original review is in dutch, click link above to read it.

After the release of some succesful demos, the dutch band Wings Of Fury went through a difficult period because of the departure of one of the founders of the band. Since the band has now completed the line-up again with e.g. a new guitarist, it was time for a new demo featuring three songs: Everlasting Emptiness.

Although they released it as a demo, you cannot hear that in the quality of the sound because it actually sounds like a well mixed and finished album. Every here and there the sound of the drums could be a bit sharper, but other than that no comments. Their mixture of thrash and gothic metal, comparable to a heavier version of Epica or After Forever, sounds impecable. In this recording the gothic metal has the upper hand, which results in fairytale-like synth melodies with soprano vocals and grunts. But the thrash influences however can easily be heard in the drum- and guitarparts. A combination that seems to work out excellent, it creates a nice variation in the songs. The same contrast can be found between the really magnificent, but above all sweet voice of soprano Miriam Dammers and the dark grunts. A real 'beauty and the beast'-band.

With this demo Wings Of Fury proves to be ready for a full release, that if continued in the style of Everlasting Emptiness will definately be a succes.

Review on Zware Metalen

Original review is in dutch, click link above to read it.

I think that the dutch band Wings Of Fury can be proud of their new demo, entitled Everlasting Emptiness. It's been a while since I heard a demo of such quality. And then I'm not even talking about the three fine tracks, but about the crystal clear production. If someone were to tell me this was an EP recorded with a big budget, I would have believed it too.

But ok; the music. The music is really sublime. Wings Of Fury offers a kind of mix between Nightwish, After Forever and a heavy dose of thrash metal. Especially the crystal clear voice of vocalist Miriam Dammers should be mentioned, since it is her voice that raises the three tracks on this release to big heights. The whole sounds pretty diverse and varies from fairytale-like gothic metal to fast thrash. A good combination if you ask me.

It sounds cheesy to say, but fans of the "gothic metal genre with heavy edges" should check Wings of Fury out. Hopefully we will hear a lot more of them.

Review on World of Heavy Metal

Translation will follow

Wings of Fury stuurde mij onlangs hun demo "Everlasting Emptiness" door.
In een eerder doorgestuurde mail kreeg ik de beschrijving van een band die gothic/thrash speelt. Wel, zoiets maakt mij nieuwsgierig en ik heb direct geantwoord dat ik die demo wilde bespreken.

Vorige week kreeg ik uiteindelijk hun album in mijn brievenbus.Voor een demo vind ik het heel netjes afgewerkt.

Mooi artwork en een hele mooie booklet erbij.
Nu hun muziek beluisteren.Hun demo bestaat uit 3 nummers:
"the Storyteller"
"Heaven's Gate of Freedom"
"(The Whispering of) A Nameless Fear"
De demo lijkt opgebouwd als een volledig verhaal, waarin de mooie operazang van Miriam het aflegt tegenover de zware grunts van Erno.De zang van Miriam klinkt zeer sterk en overtuigend, en de tegenstelling tussen haar zang en die van Erno is duidelijk merkbaar.
Het enige dat mij opvalt in hun album, dat de muziek eerder een achtergrondfunctie lijkt te hebben, en dat die muziek enorm gedomineerd wordt door de de keyboards. Er zijn veel te weinig instrumentale intermezzo's die het geheel redelijk zwaar maken.
Voor de liefhebbers van dit genre is het zeker een aanrader. Je kan de demokost 7.50 € en je kan deze op dit emailadres bestellen.

Review on Vampire Magazine

Wings of Fury is a gothic metal ensemble from Limburg in The Netherlands and Everlasting Emptiness is their third demo, containing three songs. The sound of Wings of Fury could be categorized as ‘beauty-and-the-beast gothic metal’ or ‘symphonic gothic metal with opera vocals and grunts’.
So what does that sound like in this case? The start of the first song reminds me of After Forever in times of Prison of Desire, but later on Wings of Fury’s gothic metal tends to sound more like Nightwish and Vision of Atlantis. However, Wings of Fury most of all reminds me of Sylver Myst, which is another Dutch gothic metal combo in demo phase. These bands have some things in common. First of all, the originality factor zero… And the bands in my ears have a similar sound (do they represent modern Dutch gothic metal?). However, Wings of Fury seems to be an improved version of Sylver Myst, as the band has a quite strong feature: the opera vocals of female vocalist Miriam Dammers. Her powerful soprano/opera voice sounds more or less like the voice of Helena Michaelsen (ex-Trail of Tears/Imperia/Angel), which obviously is meant as a compliment - even though I am not a lover of opera vocals myself. A pity are the grunt vocals, however, which sound quite powerless in comparing with the female vocals.

Unfortunately I am not enthusiastic about the compositions on this demo. As mentioned, originality is not at all present in this gothic metal. That doesn’t necessarily has to be a bad thing, but while the band members control their instruments pretty well, this gothic metal doesn’t affect me at all. The compositions don’t stick with me - not even after listening multiple times to it - and lacks a certain profundity. However, I actually have a similar experience with the last Nightwish albums, so if you are into Nightwish and you like gothic metal with opera vocals and bombastic symphonic sounds, you might enjoy Everlasting Emptiness. Despite the above comments, I do think Wings of Fury has potential to become a (more) successful gothic metal act. Time will tell.

Review on Metalrage

Now before I start reviewing this album I just want everybody to know that I’m absolutely not into gothic music. Nor am I a big fan of female vocals. But since I know some of the people in this band, and my band has actually played with them I decided to review their album.

In the beginning it was kind of hard for me to take this stuff seriously, but considering that this is a genre that has many followers I felt obligated to look at it objective and create a decent review.

First of all, the female vocals are very good. A nice vibrato and a lot of high tones that are never out of tone. This is also the strongest asset of this band on disc. The male vocals are just plain irritating. The supposedly evil grunts sound like shit. Reasonably atmospheric in the context of the music, but mainly like shit.

Now for the music, I’ve seen them play and know what they’re capable of and my honest opinion is that they have a magnificent guitarist that should really pursue a career in a death metal band. He played quite difficult guitar parts without even looking at his guitar. I think that this band is only holding him back. Now besides the thin (pretty raw mixed) guitar sound that is quite standard for a gothic metal band the riffs sound quite ok.
But then I have to talk about the drums, which isn’t going to help this review. A lot further than some standard Saxon-like pounding, this guy doesn’t manage. You know, I like some poeka every now and then, but if that should be in gothic, I’m not to sure about that. The sound of the drums is very poor as well, making the structures even less clear.
The synthesizers sound very well though. Probably the best mixed instrument together with the female vocals. They’re very atmospheric.

Overall I think that this record is a nice business card to arrange some shows, but a lot of work needs to be done in this band. They are very lucky to have this vocalist and guitarist, but I think that they might need some other musicians in their line-up to get the best result.