Salomé - The Seventh Veil is the fourth album for the German-based goth metal band, Xandria, who delivers a well produced album, blending metal guitar, bass, drums, piano and orchestral sounds, with a nice thick layer of luscious female vocals.Â

The album delivers handily, pulling off a perfect balance of metal and gothic sound. Most of the songs are in the ballad tempo range, but have their more heated moments too. Highlights of the album include "Save My Life", "Vampire", "Firestorm" and "The Wind and the Ocean", which has a middle eastern flair. The Artoffact release of this album also includes a bonus remix of "Sisters of the Light", remixed by Jesus on Extasy, which certainly bumps up the dancefloor quality of this song, though I'm not sure it fully works.

Sadly, Lisa Middelhauve, the lead singer, has left the band in April 2008. Since then, the band has released a best of album, Now & Forever, Best of Xandria. At the time of this writing, the band has stated they will be announcing a new singer on February 9th, 2009.

Regardless of what the future hold for Xandria, Salomé - The Seventh Veil is a must buy for gothic metal enthusiasts. The guitar and orchestral elements are masterfully infused together and Lisa's vocal are superb.