by Stewart MasonAs a general rule, synthesizers and metal don't mix. (Exhibit A: Europe's "The Final Countdown," ripe for mockery long before it became a running joke on the TV sitcom Arrested Development.) And for many of the genre's more unthinkingly misogynist fans, chicks and metal don't mix, either. On their debut album, however, Benedictum integrate a powerful female singer and a synth player with an otherwise standard-issue big-riffing-guitars metal band to good effect. Singer Veronica Freeman has a powerful, hectoring voice, similar at times to Grace Slick's potent bellow from the Jefferson Starship days, and keyboardist Chris Morgan prefers to add subtle coloration and powerful drone parts rather than lame Keith Emerson-style twiddling. Unfortunately, Freeman and Morgan are pretty much the only interesting aspects of this California band's debut album, which consists mostly of riff-heavy headbanging with little else new or interesting to offer. (This possibly explains why the album includes not one but two Black Sabbath covers.) Benedictum deserve some credit — with a female singer and a synth player, they could easily have become just another Nightwish-clone "darkwave" goth metal band — but Uncreation doesn't make the best possible use of the band's two strongest assets.