Döxa
Lust For Wonder

Lust for wonder is what the title claims for the third album by Spanish band Döxa, but the question is whether or not they show much wonderlust on it. The cover art is quite great and certainly makes the album look exciting and that they are female fronted isn’t exactly detracting from the sense of excitement. And listening to this album you hear that the singer is Spanish, she reminds me of other Spanish vocalists I have heard. In a way this album reminds me of the earlier works from fellow countrymen in Dark Moor, even though I don’t quite know why I think that. I noticed when looking at the band’s website that they have replaced the singer and become a quintet, strange thing to me as I think the vocalist probably the best thing about this album. An album containing a dozen tracks in the power metal genre.

Power metal with symphonic and classic undertones, female vocals though there are some male vocals in some of the tracks. I would claim that it sounds rather similar to many of the bands in the same genre; they build their songs around catchiness and strong choruses.  The vocals are probably the most memorable thing of an otherwise quite ordinary album in regard to the originality. The songs are of the usual variety and there isn’t really anything that feels original, creative or wondrous about this album, it is a solid handiwork and you cannot complain about craftsmanship just the lack of fresh ideas. And the album is quite long as well, beyond fifty minutes and no originality is really too long for a seasoned critic to care.

This is a solid album, the songs are fairly good as are the melodies, it is a rather catchy album that lacks apparent weaknesses. The problem just is that there are many such albums around and there isn’t really anything to set this album apart from all the similar albums that exist already. Nothing that Döxa does offer us anything we haven’t heard before, and neither do they show a quality above most of what we hear in the genre. The ending track is probably the best one of the album, but they are all good songs – just not very interesting or attention grabbing. I find myself struggling for things to write and for just paying attention to this album, it sounds just like any other album that I have already heard.

In the end I think we can describe Lust for Wonder as a decent album, genre fans might find it most appealing while the more general fans will probably think of this as another female fronted power metal album. My conclusion has to be that Lust for Wonder is a solid production, a good power metal album, but also one that is rather fast forgotten.

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