I'm getting a very strong sense of deja vu. The moment I first put this in my CD player I thought I'd put on Sengir by mistake. The first track on Ultima is almost identical to that on Guilty Water. And it's called 'Intro', no surprises there, though I'd like an explanation as to why 'Outro' comes two thirds of the way through the album rather than at the end.

Well, CDs like this are hard on us all, you know. Sometimes you come across a band and after giving their album a few spins you put it back on the shelf and it's like they never existed. I get a strange feeling about Naamah. Yes, they remind me of Sengir a lot, but to be honest their sound is more inventive. They have some interesting elements going on in their songs. A bit of slap bass here, some violin there. The songs are good too, but I'm sorry to say, that's where the pros stop. I don't get a feeling of promise by listening to Ultima - I don't get the feeling that the best from this band is yet to come. The sensation is that Ultima is very much Naamah's trajectory, they're happy with it and they intend to remain on it for a good time to come.

Also, in spite of some good parts in songs like Stranger and Last Night, there are things that just seem to have been thrown in, in the hope they'll elevate some songs above bland status - two examples, the violin in Eternal Fear is close to laughable, it sounds like something off a 1920s ragtime jazz track, and the synth in Noli Me Tangere sounds like Nightwish on a bad day. But what's this?? Track 6 - a cover of She Is My Sin?! Well, it's fine to do covers, but be warned, the territory is treacherous - only cover a song if a] you can do it justice and b] if the cover will do you justice as a band. So, does it? Well, it's not an out and out massacre, but Naamah do show they don't have the technical mastery of better bands. Just because you can build a house, don't think you can build a cathedral. Vocals are provided by Ania Panasz, who looks like Alison Moyet, but can't really sing as well, and that's about all I have to say on her. The artwork's quite nice, though. It reminds me of Magritte or Dali.

All in all, this not overly impresses me. Naamah have talent, and they can put a few half decent songs together, but that's not enough, we all know that. Ultima is the kind of thing I'll play when I'm looking for something slightly different - for some variety. It stands in a different corner from a lot of other Gothic Metal, but it faces the wall.