How time flies. It seems like only yesterday that I started working for metalrage.com and was proud to see my first review being put online. It may not be professional, but honesty compels me to say that I was inexperienced back then and maybe a little overenthusiastic. Fraise was the subject of my musical analysis at the time. Of course, I was curious about their second album� and here it is. Does A New Beginning indeed reflect a change the band has gone through?

Fraise is not what it used to be. And I mean that literally. The band had some line-up changes and features three new members since 2004. On guitars, on bass and on vocals. Needless to say, their sound has changed as well. Where their style resembled slow heavy metal in the past, it�s evolved into a lot more energetic, variable genre with aspects that will appeal to both admirers of classic metal as the modern power metal fan.

The biggest � and most important � change in the band�s history was the addition of vocalist Ola Hedman. The vocals were pretty mellow on Hellicornia and the band apparently acknowledged that fact. Hedman�s voice is more versatile than Jesper�s, which makes it all the more worth of hearing what this band is all about.

The music�s faster, more melodic and the fear of experimenting seems to be disappearing slowly. The thing that I�d like to see improve the most is the production of the sound, which is average: with maybe a little more time, the band could�ve mastered it better in the studio.
As I already stated back in 2004, Fraise does probably nothing you haven�t already heard. Yet, this album is definitely a step forward from their debut. If Fraise continue going in the direction they�re heading in now, I foresee an interesting future.