dtguitarfan I remember discovering this album and laughing with joy as I listened to it the first time. I absolutely LOVED the theatrical orchestral arrangements layered underneath heavy metal guitars and drums, the operatic soprano of Simone Simmons juxtaposed with the growling death-metal vocals. I will be honest here - I have never been a huge fan of death-metal growling. It has turned me away from some bands - some that I later decided to give a fair trial and was able to enjoy despite the growls, and some I never could get into. I like to compare death-metal growling to hot sauce - different people have different tolerance levels of it, but there's almost always a point at which it's too much, and another point at which it's just right and makes a dish oh so interesting. Epica, I believe, is one of those bands that uses just the right amount of growling - juxtaposed with the operatic soprano vocals, it makes things oh so interesting, and this particular album of theirs has become one of the most frequently played in my collection.

adg211288 The Serpent’s Curse is the second full-length release from UK symphonic metal act Pythia. For a young band they’ve left it quite a while since dropping their debut, Beneath the Veiled Embrace, which was released in 2009. Although I enjoyed their debut it didn’t particularly grab me as anything special either. Time seems to have been well spent between albums for Pythia though as in 2012 they’ve blasted back with a slightly altered line-up that now includes To-Mera’s Mark Harrington and an album that looks set to catapult the band right up there to stand among the greats of symphonic metal.

The up in the quality of the material is just astounding. In 2009 Beneath the Veiled Embrace had me considering Pythia to be just another half-decent symphonic metal band. Then The Serpent’s Curse comes along, knocks that notion on the head and asserts itself as one of 2012’s best symphonic metal releases, even going as far to blow one of the big guns of the style out of the water (Epica). Only the recent release from Xandria, Neverworld’s End really tops what Pythia just did with the Serpent’s Curse. But while that album is a perfect example of symphonic power metal of the vein Nightwish used to play The Serpent’s Curse is a symphonic power metal album with a much more unique approach to what the genre has previously established. Although I prefer Xandria’s out of this year’s symphonic metal releases so far, Pythia have in all fairness made an album with much more going for it in the wider scheme of things.

That’s because they don’t just rely on a symphonic approach in their music. The slow and building clean guitars of the opening Cry of Our Nation is the first sign of this, being very much an atypical way to kick off a symphonic metal album. Normally you’d get a building symphonic intro track, so this is refreshing to say the least. More than this the band draws on other genres as well. Progressive tendencies creep in during some parts but more than that, they band is also influenced by extreme metal styles, particularly thrash metal. The guitars are allowed much more of free reign than they are in other symphonic bands, making them feel very much the main instrument rather than the keyboards. Riffs are not just there because they need to be, but drive the album and are often aggressive fast paced affairs. It’s metal as it should be, basically. It may seem at times with other symphonic metal bands that they forget what it means to be a metal band. No such worries here, Pythia have all the credentials they need completely covered, resulting in an album that takes the best of both worlds.

Now, just because I said there’s an extreme metal influence here, doesn’t mean you’re going to get yet another beauty and the beast vocal team. No growls to be found here, just the vocals of the excellent female vocalist Emily Alice Ovenden, who carries both the heaviest and most symphonic material on the album to the same high standard. And if you’re thinking that this sounds like a bad idea if they’re going to draw on extreme metal you needn’t, her voice suits every song of this album.

All songs on the album are of the highest quality. Better yet, they’re easy to tell apart. You’ve got the more intricate mini-epics like Cry of Our Nation and Our Forgotten Land, all out rockers like lead single Betray My Heart, real heavy beasts like Kissing the Knife and progressively inclined tracks like Dark Star. It’s an oddball of an album really, you know it’s a symphonic metal release, and yet it doesn’t play like one as you know it at all. The album is just shy of fifty minutes in length, but doesn’t feel like it at all. Like anything really good, it just flies by before you know it. Naturally reaching for the repeat button isn’t a bad idea.

Based on The Serpent’s Curse I think it’s very clear that Pythia is leading the charge of a new breed of symphonic metal bands and if they and others like them can keep up the sort of quality on display here then maybe symphonic metal will soon become much less of a joke to the true metal elite, not to mention get it out of the beauty and the beat rut. For generally pushing the boat out and making what may just be the most unique album of the genre for quite some time, Pythia deserves no less than a top tier score.

9.6/10

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org))

adg211288 Circus Black is the fourth full-length album from Finnish symphonic metal/neo-classical power metal act Amberian Dawn. The release features guest appearances from Stratovarius members Timo Kotipelto (on Cold Kiss) and Jens Johansson (on Crimson Flower). The album was released in 2012, making this the band’s longest break between studio albums, their last being 2010’s End of Eden, which I saw as their weakest album so far, something I personally put down to following an album-per-year cycle that ultimately resulted in a patchy release that contained both some of their best but also some of their weakest tracks. They’ve left it a bit longer between albums this time and thankfully Circus Black sees the band returning to the form of their first two albums River of Tuoni (2008) and The Clouds of Northland Thunder (2009).

In terms of style, nothing has really changed for Amberian Dawn. They still mix symphonic metal with neo-classical power metal, though perhaps not to the exact same extents as their earliest material. All that sets Circus Black above End of Eden is that the writing is more consistent throughout. There are no dud tracks as in the previous album. That’s satisfying for a fan of their past material, but with four releases under their belt I’d have liked the band to develop their sound a lot more than they have been doing by this point. I love Amberian Dawn’s sound, I really do, but even though it overall wasn’t as good, I can’t help feeling that End of Eden was actually a braver album than this one. Circus Black is as playing it safe as playing it safe gets. The lack of surprises is a double-edged sword, on one hand there’s nothing that will backfire on them as with End of Eden’s classical track Virvatulen Laulu, but there’s also nothing that breaks the band any new ground.

To elaborate further, I can’t really fault the songs on offer here for what they are. Circus Black is in all fairness a great album, and I’ll still grade it as such, but I can’t help feeling that the band could be so much more. Symphonic metal can be a very epic form of metal, but Amberian Dawn doesn’t seem prepared to exploit this to the best of their very apparent ability, instead favouring use of pretty standard song structures, most of which clock in with short durations (the longest here is 5:09). The band may flirt with some progressive ideas from time to time, as in The Rivalry Between Good And Evil, but imagine what they would be like if they went the whole hog and combined that and their strong symphonic sound with some longer tracks. They’d create something really special. It’s not that it isn’t epic at all, but it’s all mini-epics. The potential is all there but the tracks are over before it has much chance to get going. Even one or two compositions that pushed the boat out would have helped the album a lot.

This leaves me with concerns for Amberian Dawn’s continued viability within the symphonic metal genre. I remember when they first released their debut River of Tuoni in 2008, and thinking of them as a real contender to be among the genre’s finniest acts but since then they’ve done little to nothing to evolve their sound beyond just being a cut above most acts in the genre, and as much as I still like them, I can’t help feeling that they’re in danger of getting stale. Their next album could really make or break them.

But credit where credit is due it’s also clear after four albums that Amberian Dawn has decided on their sound and it looks like at this stage everything they deliver in the future will just be Amberian Dawn being Amberian Dawn, kind of like a new Motörhead album is Motörhead being Motörhead. That’s fine to a point, if you’re good at what you do and Amberian Dawn definitely are then there’s no shame in that, but at the same time I can’t really justify a score any higher than what I’m giving Circus Black in this review, and in some ways I feel over generous with this.

8.0/10

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org))

adg211288 Requiem for the Indifferent is the sixth album from Dutch symphonic metal band Epica. It’s been a few years since they last released an album and I have to be honest, Requiem for the Indifferent always stood as my most anticipated symphonic metal release of 2012. Their last few works easily stand as testament to the band’s credentials as one of the genre’s finist acts. The album was unfortunately released with its final song, Serenade of Self-Destruction, missing the vocal tracks due to an error. Nuclear Blast has released this song as a free download for the time being but hopefully future pressings of physical copies will contain the correct track.

Requiem for the Indifferent continues the natural progression of Epica’s sound that has been in evident throughout their career, but especially since the release of The Divine Conspiracy (2007), and by extension Mark Jansen’s newer group MaYaN’s debut album Quarterpast (2011). I’d say that the album can be quite fairly considered just as much to do with progressive metal now as it can symphonic metal. While they’ve had prog leanings for a while, perhaps most evident in previous album Design Your Universe’s (2009) epic centrepiece Kingdom of Heaven, here they’re no longer in the shadows; very much out in the open. Epica produced a couple of symphonic metal masterpieces with their last couple of albums as far as I’m concerned, Design Your Universe especially, but the song they’re producing here is definitely what I’ve been waiting to hear from them.

It’s typical then that Requiem for the Indifferent seems hell-bent on blowing up in their collective face. From the error affecting Serenade of Self-Destruction to the generally poor production job by Sascha Paeth there seems to be something around every corner that will hold the album back. The former I can overlook since it isn’t the band’s fault. It isn’t something that should be allowed to happen but I can overlook it all the same. The latter however is a kick in the teeth to say the least, especially since based on the actual songs this is another high quality Epica release. Maybe not overall on quite the same level of quality as their last two, but I’m still confident about its standing as an exceptional follow-up based on the songs here. The production is another matter. It’s not terrible as such but it doesn’t do the music any favours either. It just sounds...flat. The guitars are the worse effected. I’m used Epica producing a powerful and heavy symphonic metal sound, and this is very weak in comparison. What’s most surprising is that Sascha Paeth has done a fine job for them in the past. To be fair the production is a little up and down, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It all depends on the track and the context and direction of the music at the time.

The writing and the performance of the band members are the best redeeming factors you can get though. As I said, based on the material Epica has offered up this time I don’t think this album is quite as good as The Divine Conspiracy or Design Your Universe, but it certainly gives more than its fair share of tracks which can be considered to be among the band’s best. Among these highlights is perhaps surprisingly the lead single Storm the Sorrow. Precedent says the Epica single will be a more commercialised track than the rest of the album, and either growl free (Design Your Universe’s Unleashed) or near enough to not make much difference (The Divine Conspiracy’s Never Enough). Of course where this style of metal is concerned we’re still talking a bit more radio friendly than most but still Storm the Sorrow not only features a very prominent growling section but it’s really no more commercial than the average Epica track. Simone Simon’s vocals are what makes the track really special though. As usual she delivers perfectly throughout the album. Jansen’s growls are also on the mark; despite what some people may say about his vocals I think we’re talking one of the most powerful growlers in metal here. If the MaYaN debut, a symphonic death metal album, proved anything it was that Mark Jansen can carry an album as the lead vocalist just as well as Simone Simons. Together the two are the definitive beauty and the beast vocal team.

Other early highlights include Monopoly on Truth, Internal Warfare, and the title track, which includes some eastern folksy sounds. That’s pretty much the entire first half of the album except ballad Delirium, which is a nice enough track that highlights Simone’s vocals but as with any metal album the band would be doing something wrong if this was the track you were most interested in. Monopoly on Truth, Internal Warfare, and the title track showcase Epica’s more pronounced progressive metal approach, especially the latter two.

The structure of the release is typical Epica: intro, few tracks, interlude, and then rest of the tracks. Actually the structure is more or less identical to Design Your Universe including the positioning of the two epics and why not? It worked well enough for them last time and if it weren’t for the letdown of a production I’m sure it would do the same here. I have to be honest, because of the material and performance standard I’m still happily giving Requiem for the Indifferent a very high end score, but I have to consider the issues the album has so as much as I’d like things to be different my rating can’t be as high as what I previously gave The Divine Conspiracy (9.6) and Design Your Universe (10.0).

After the interlude, Anima, the pace gets going again with Guilty Demeanor. This one’s another shining example of Simone’s vocal abilities. I’d consider it a highlight for that reason alone. Also the production works a bit better here. The next track, Deep Water Horizon, is a little hit and miss though. Simone’s still on form and to be fair it really picks up about two thirds of the way through, but you have to wait a bit for the track to deliver the goods. Things are back on track with Stay the Course however, with more prog coming out of the woodwork. Honestly most of the album retains Design Your Universe’s top tier level of quality, but little blips like Deep Water Horizon are what holds it back a little. Not as much as the production, because for example I can’t help wondering how much more powerful a track like Deter the Tyrant would sound if those guitars had more bite to them, and if they were a bit more dominate in the mix. There’s a lot of going on with the guitars in this track, and it would be nice for some attention to be given to them. The production highlights the vocals but harms the instrumentation. That’s a shame, because what’s the point in actually bringing something really special to the symphonic metal table if you’re not going to flaunt it?

It’s ironic really, but I’ve spent my time earlier this year in other symphonic metal reviews I’ve done going on about how Epica is the best in the symphonic game right now and then they go and get outshined by a couple of other acts, namely Pythia and Xandria, especially Xandria. Still despite the production this ultimately isn’t an unsatisfactory release from Epica. With a couple of exceptions we’re talking exceptional to masterpiece levels of quality once again. If it weren’t for the production I’d now be giving it a grade pushing towards that top tier but although it doesn’t suffer so much that it drops out of the exceptional zone the score I ultimately have to give Requiem for the Indifferent is more towards the lower end of that scale. Personally speaking I do love this album, but there are some things that as a reviewer I can’t just overlook and that production is one of them. But anyway, if you’ve enjoyed their past works I see no reason not to like this one. Newcomers may wish to investigate Design Your Universe instead though, for no other reason than that production giving you the wrong impression.

8.7/10

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org))

arcane-beautiful (This album is a lot like the new Cannibal Corpse album…not in style, just in the way I feel about it)

Why I haven't gotten round to reviewing one of these guys albums yet is a mystery to me...cause I really do love this band. But sure, I'm reviewing all the new stuff now, so I might as well give my opinion about this knew one.

Now Epica have been a band I have really loved for quite a long time now. Ever since The Divine Conspiracy (which is definitely one of the best symphonic metal albums ever made) I have been a fan. Now their last album Design Your Universe I haven’t really gotten around to listening too, and I don’t physically own a copy of their first 2 albums (although I do know they are 2 amazing albums). So I was excited to actually sit down and listen to this one.

Now, I was slightly disappointed with this one…but it’s still not a bad album.

There is a definite slight change in direction with this album, but with good intentions. Usually the choirs and orchestration are really over the top in Epica albums, but with this one, they’ve taken a slight backseat. They are still there, don’t get me wrong…just not as in the limelight as they where. The guitar sound has improved as well, and the guitar playing (I think someone has been listening to Dream Theater in my opinion).

The vocals as usual from Simone are amazing as always (she really is one of the best female metal vocalists, and she is always underlooked). But the biggest surprise from me is that Marks vocals really are improving, and in my opinon are becoming a real highlight of the band. Also the drummer is doing some grunts now as well, which is pretty cool.

As usual, Epica’s lyrics are always a little bit better than most metal bands, whether they’re singing about mental health, politics, philosophy or just life in general. Both Simone and Mark are great lyric writers.

The only problem I can see with the album is that there are only moments that really grab my attention. Usually with an Epica album, every song is stuck in my head after listening to it, but with this one, at the most 2 have really became Epica classics.

But…that’s my opinion really.

1. Karma – A nice little intro. 6/10

2. Monopoly Of Truth – Ok, now this is the way you start an album. Such a kick ass song. This song seems to show Epica’s more proggier approach, which I have to admit, sounds amazing. There is also a riff in this song which Epica stole from me…now I have proof I wrote it 4 years ago…but I’ll let them have it this time. 10/10

3. Storm The Sorrow – Ok, this is the single from the album, and I can see why. I really didn’t expect this song to be that good. Love the choir arrangements. Such an epic ending. 10/10

4. Delirium – Beautiful vocal intro. I love the choir arrangements in the song. There is some really beautiful moments in this song. 8/10

5. Internal Warfare – The verse melody reminds me of Alladin, for some odd reason. There is some really dark moments in this song. Great lyrics. 7/10

6. Requiem For The Indifferent – Nice middle eastern sounding intro to the song. Mark’s vocals are pretty killer in this song. Nice chorus. The lyrics are the best part of the song in my opinion, and really bring up some pretty cool topics like recession and the current economic climate. 9/10

7. Anima – A nice piano interlude. 5/10

8. Guilty Demeanor – Pretty kick ass song, and it’s pretty quick too. Some nice lyrics too. 8/10

9. Deep Water Horizon – The changes throughout this song are pretty odd, but interesting nonetheless. The instrumental section in this song is epic as hell. 8/10

10. Stay The Course – Killer vocals from Mark. Pretty epic at times. 8/10

11. Deter The Tyrant – The use of the choir is pretty epic. Kick ass song with a pretty cool chorus. 8/10

12. Avalanche – Great use of vocals in this song, especially from Simone. Cool chorus too. 8/10

13. Serenade Of Self-Destruction – Ok, for those that don't know, there was a total cock up in the mixing and distribution of this album. For some odd unfathomable reason, the vocal tracks for this song where taken out...which really is like taking the cake out of a birthday cake. So no mark for this one. I blame Nuclear Blast. The only time they've done me wrong.

14. Nostalgia – I can see why this wasn’t on the album. It’s alright I guess. The vocals are the highlight really. 6/10

CONCLUSION: This is their weakest album in my opinion. It’s still pretty great, but comparing it to there others, it’s their weakest. I would recommend this album to a metal fan, but if someone really wants to get into Epica, I would suggest something else.

7.2/10

adg211288 With Epica getting bigger and bigger and the likes of Nightwish and Within Temptation alienating their long-standing fans more and more with each release it makes sense that the newer breed of female-fronted symphonic metal acts will be taking their cues more from Epica’s style of beauty and the beast symphonic metal than the longer standing big guns. Diabulus in Musica is a young Spanish act and The Wanderer is their second full-length, which they released in 2012. They’ve a very much textbook case of being in the same vein as Epica (they even have Mark Jansen as a guest on the album). I think that at this stage in their career Epica can’t be beaten at their own game, but Diabulus in Musica showcased how to be like Epica in the right way, that is to say by taking the core of the beauty and the beast approach (although in Diabulus in Musica’s case it’s actually beauty and the beasts, the group has two growlers) and adding their own flair to it.

Although classifiable as symphonic metal as a whole, The Wanderer also draws on various other styles, including gothic metal, death metal and power metal. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Fortunately although their ingredients are pretty much the same, Diabulus in Musica managed to pull off an album that will sit comfortable with Epica’s music, without being a clone of said band. A main reason for that is that Diabulus in Musica aren’t afraid to release songs which see their female singer absent or at least less prominent and focus on growling vocals, such as Shadow of the Throne. Epica only did this as a bonus track. Tracks like this aren’t common, but the symphonic death metal style of them certainly gives the album an additional edge, which is in contrast to some of their others songs, which only use female vocals and just like the longer running acts in the game come across as rather commercial, especially Sceneries of Hope, the song they made a video for. I find that I like Diabulus in Musica’s sound regardless of whether they’re just using female vocals, growls, or a mix of both, although I have to say that Sceneries of Hope is my least favourite track from the album, mainly because I dislike the more electronic sounding keyboards used here. They seem out of place compared to the direction the rest of the album takes. Since this was the first song from Diabulus in Musica I heard I didn’t get the very best first impressions, but fortunately the rest of the album sets a much higher standard throughout.

Another difference from Epica is the amount of folk in the release. Not folk metal, but actual folk music parts that crop up during songs while the metal takes the backseat. Folk metal cropping up in symphonic metal acts is getting common, but Diabulus in Musica do things a little difference with this approach of only using folk where they don’t want any metal. The closing title track is the best example of the band’s folk side, a beautiful ballad driven by the acoustic guitar with sprinklings of folk melody and stunning vocals from Zuberoa Aznárez, who shines throughout the whole release. Really, as with most beauty and the beast acts the beast side of the vocal team isn’t really needed with a singer of this calibre, but at least in Diabulus in Musica’s case Zuberoa isn’t held back by unneeded growling vocals. All vocals are used to best effect in this release.

All in all I have to say this is a great album. Although the similarities to Epica and acts in that vein are numerous what we have here is a band who show all the potential they need to become an integral part of that crowd of acts. I’d say that The Wanderer is very much a highly recommended purchase for fans of the style. It doesn’t come across as being anything more that great for me, we’re not talking a masterpiece here but with The Wanderer Diabulus in Musica did deliver an album that does everything I expect of the symphonic metal style, and in all honesty even if it’s not a masterpiece, a great album is not to be sniffed at. Also although the whole beauty and the beats thing is getting a bit old due to vast overuse, Diabulus in Musica proved with The Wanderer that it’s still possible to pull it off without sounding stale.

8.4/10

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org))

adg211288 Neverworld's End is the fifth full-length album by German symphonic metal act Xandria. The 2012 album is the band’s first full-length to be released since 2007’s Salomé - the Seventh Veil and a lot has happened since then. For starters lead vocalist Lisa Middelhauve decided to leave the band to be replaced by Kerstin Bischoff, who in turn also left the band without recording with them, and Lisa returned to the fold in 2010 for live performances but never officially rejoined the band. Fronting the band now is Manuela Kraller, who has also been a member with Haggard. The rest of the Xandria line-up remains unchanged from the previous release but the sound of the band has received a substantial dose of power metal injected into it. Not to the point that their sound has moved into the same sort of symphonic power metal territory as what a band like Ancient Bards play that has more to do with the power metal genre than symphonic metal, but it comes pretty close to it.

This of course means that comparisons to Nightwish’s early material will be made, and they won’t be entirely unfounded, as there’s more than a couple of moments within Neverworld's End that bring mind to Nightwish circa Oceanborn and Wishmaster. But despite some undeniable similarities the album doesn’t come across as being a direct sound-alike, but rather the sort of album that complements those other high calibre releases of the symphonic metal genre, as that’s just what this is as well. It’s symphonic metal at its finest. We’ve got heavy guitars, fuelled by the speed of power metal, excellent use of the symphonic element to create an epic backdrop to the metal, and a flawless performance from Manuela Kraller that adds so much to the classical bombast of the sound, and in a couple of places there’s even a bit of folk thrown in for good measure, and also some surprising progressive twists. If I could only have one word to describe the album it would be ‘epic’.

Honestly I never expected to encounter a symphonic metal album in this particular vein of this sort of quality these days. It’s most definitely a genre that although I love has been feeling a bit stale, and even somewhat clichéd. Xandria impresses me immensely with Neverworld's End though. Here we have a symphonic metal band that of course is still more accessible than other metal genres such as thrash and death but doesn’t completely go into the sort of pop territory that Within Temptation do. Here we have a symphonic metal band that allows their stunning lead singer to shine without making her share the microphone with a death growler in beauty and the beast vocal style. Here we have a symphonic metal band that knows how to use their symphonic element to perfection, without allowing their riffs to take a backseat. Really there can be no high level of praise given to a symphonic metal album than what Neverworld's End deserves.

Also the album is highly consistent. There is no point in singling out any particularly tracks as highlights with an album like this because as soon as the album kicks off with A Prophecy Of Worlds To Fall what you’re getting is the same high level of material all the way through until the album ends with The Nomad's Crown. Even the slower balladry parts are as epic as the really intense and heavy stuff like Soulcrusher and don’t come over as cheesy in any way. Of course I have a few personal favourites, Soulcrusher being one of those, but Valentine, Call Of The Wind, Blood On My Hands and especially Cursed all really do something special for me.

At the end of 2011 I told myself that I should be more reserved with my review scores, but Xandria just blew that idea out of the water with Neverworld's End. The album is the perfection of a genre, and fully deserves the one score that can be associated with that. I was convinced that if any symphonic metal album of 2012 would be within this sort of level it would be Epica’s, which is due out very soon at the time of writing, but honestly Epica has already deliver a symphonic metal album of this sort of strength in Design Your Universe, so the chances of two on the trot are slim, and there’re going to have to pull something really exceptional out of the hat to top what Xandria just did. Neverworld's End comes recommended as an essential purchase. I haven’t reviewed many of this year’s albums yet, but this one is going straight to the top of my fledgling list and I can’t think of a single album due out this year that has a real chance of upsetting it.

10.0/10

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org))

Time Signature Slavonic power...

Genre: symphonic metal

Released in 2009 as a follow up to WinterMoon Symphony from 2008, Апейрон, or Aperion is a bit of a mixed bag EP from Russian sympbonic extreme metallers Welicoruss.

Welicoruss take the listener on a journey through quite different and varying landscapes of sound ranging from lush symhonies to industrial dance metal and whatever might lie between. The title track 'Апейрон' is pretty much a melodeath tune with with elements of dark power metal as well as melodic black metal and features some nice guitar harmonies as well as some blastbeat sections with atmoshperic keyboards in the background and melodic guitars on top. 'Blud Flower' is a lush symphonic metal instrumental while 'Flower of the Universe' is an epic symphonic peice featuring a bit of electric guitar. There is also a heavy metallic version of 'Knight's Tale' and 'Слава Рус' combines symphonic metal with Slavic folk metal, and 'Славянская Сила (Elias remix)' is a techno version of 'Славянская Сила' from 2008's WinterMoon Symphony, which is otherwise stylistically similar to 'Слава Руси'.

While casual symphonic metal listeners might enjoy 'Апейрон', 'К Дальним Мирам', 'Blud Flower', and 'Слава Руси', this EP is probably primarily aimed at people who are already fans of the band, who are likely to be more interested in the remixes that it contains than non-fans are. Fans should definitely check this EP out, while a better introduction to the band for non-fans is probably the 2008-album WinterMoon Symphony or perhaps the 2011-maxi Карна.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)

Time Signature Slavonic power...

Genre: symphonic metal

I am very cautious when it comes to symphonic metal, because it can very easily end up being very, very cheesy. Specifically bands who blend symphonic metal with extreme metal have a tendency to come up with music that just does not appeal to me. However, despite the fact that I am not a big fan of symphonic metal, I know good symphonic metal when I hear it.

And Russian symph metallers Welicoruss' 2008-album WinterMoon Symphony is definitely an instance of quality symhonic metal.

One of the main attractions to this album is the combination of symphonic metal with extreme metal, Slavic folk metal, and power metal. I know, this sounds like a potential cheese-fest, but it isn't. Instead, Welicoruss deliver powerful metal tunes with lush keyboard arrangements as well as layers of symphonic effects combined with strong guitar riffs – some of which are aggressive and potent while others are melodic and appealing. There are also plenty of guitar leads and twin guitar harmonies, and this is not one of those albums where the guitars take the backseat which the keyboards and symphonic effects steal the limelight. Everything is quite well balanced on WinterMoon Symphony (my only beef here is that, in the blastbeat sections, the snare drum is virtually inaudible), and, weaving in and out of different passages, tempi and metal aesthetics the album even has a quite progressive character to it. Also, while featuring both harsh male vocals and clean female vocals, Welicoruss do not fall into the beauty-and-thebeast trap, as the female vocals tat are featured on the album are more of a traditional Russian character than the pseudo-operatic female vocals often head in beauty-beast metal.

Fans of symphonic metal who are interested in hearing a Russian take on the genre – which infuses Slavic music elements into it – should definitely check out this massively melodic yet metallically dark and evil release.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)

Stephen My search for a better prog/power metal outfit last year was stumbled on this. I'm not sure I have heard their previous albums before, but based on the only information that this is a female-fronted band, I expect something great in the border of SYMPHONY X and WITHIN TEMPTATION, but how unfortunate when all I got is a mediocre symphonic metal band. Sure there are some great moments here. 'New Dawn', is the best tune, a power metal track that has commercial touch and sounds very melodic, I'm in love with this right at the first spin.

'Twist of Fate' and 'Elegy of Existence' are two nice tracks, but apart from that three strong tracks, VISION OF ATLANTIS bored me with lots of poorly written tunes, such as 'Where Daylight Falls' or 'Conquest of Others'. 'Memento' is actually pretty good, gave me a thought of a colossal musical score when I first spin it, but the 6:38 duration isn't really full with goodie and they could have shorten it couple of minutes off.

'Black River Delta' isn't bad and the ballad, 'Reflection', is also far from horrible, but with only 3 great tracks, this album was struggling to fight to the top table of any prog fans end-year list. To me, a 70% top and perhaps will go down to 65% after a while.

adg211288 Power Dive is the second album from German symphonic metal act Voices of Destiny. The style of the album more specifically draws on gothic metal and power metal within the dominantly symphonic sound, using the beauty and the beast vocal format. The album was released in 2012.

Now I consider symphonic metal to be one of my favourite styles of metal, especially the female fronted bands, but deep down I’m also highly critical of the genre, especially the female fronted bands. The reason? Repetition. There are not many bands that really manage to hold my attention now that I’ve got acquainted with a wide range of acts. In fact although I guess some may argue, I don’t think you can beat the big name acts of the style at their own game, and that’s exactly the problem with Voices of Destiny’s second album. It’s my first encounter with the band, and while I won’t go as far to say that it will be my last, the band is young and all and as they do show later in the album may have something surprising up their sleeves for the future, Power Dive isn’t an album that makes me want to revisit it in a hurry.

If you’ve heard Epica’s music then you’ll know kind of what to expect with Voices of Destiny, except what we have here comes across not so much an Epica clone act as a poor man’s version of them. The band’s best asset would have to be female vocalist Maike Holzmann, whose vocals are very typical of the style but that’s why she’s the band’s best asset. She’s just right for the style, it’s just everything else going on around her that typically lets her down badly for the majority of Power Dive. Her male counterpart Lukas Palme, who is also the keyboardist, is not a bad growler at all, but he just doesn’t put on a performance that really offsets Maike Holzmann’s vocals. The symphonic keyboards don’t really add a lot to the music either in most of the tracks. You can hear them in the background having their odd moments, but there’s no epic fusion of heavy guitar riffs and classical music and when symphonic metal fails to be epic, unless it has other redeeming features, I typically just lose interest and sadly that’s just what has happened on Power Dive. It’s not really rare for me to be a bit disappointed in symphonic metal albums due to not really bringing anything new to the table, but many of them can end up still being solid albums. It is rare however for me to be as disappointed though as I am with this one.

The reason for that is that the songs just aren’t memorable. The elements are there, but they just don’t come together. The title track in particular is just the most extremely boring symphonic metal song I think I’ve ever heard. Things pick up a bit after that, as a bit of power metal influence comes into play, but it takes until Dedication, which is the eighth of eleven tracks, until I really hear something that tells me that Voices of Destiny have potential within their field. I actually enjoyed this track a fair bit. An album that kept up this calibre may not have been groundbreaking or innovative but it at least would have been a solid addition to a symphonic metal fan’s collection. Unfortunately you probably don’t need to be told that if you have to wait until the eighth track to get a highlight then the album has serious problems.

But what’s this? That’s right after suddenly delivering the good eight tracks in Voices of Destiny surprise me and do in again straight away with Your Hands. It’s too a lesser degree certainly but after what I just about got used to pre-Dedication this is surprising to say the least. This was a reason for pointedly saying ‘mostly’ and ‘majority’ a couple of times in the earlier stages of this review. I find it totally flummoxing how an artist can get it wrong for so long during an album and then suddenly start delivering the goods this far in. Yeah you guessed it, they did it yet again with Red Winter's Snow I (Prophets Of Doom). Okay, so it still kind of suffers with the issues outlined earlier in this review but at the end of the day this is damn solid symphonic metal, and ultimately that’s all I really demand of the genre. Innovation is very nice of course, but if a symphonic metal album can be made up of solid material with an epic sound then I’ll be a happy bunny.

It just makes me want to scream at the injustice of it all. Had the whole album been of the quality they suddenly pulled out of the hat towards the end we’d have been talking a recommendable release, but ultimately all Voices of Destiny proved with Power Dive is how inconsistent they are. It didn’t help that you could break the album up into sections such as ‘Cliché Intro Track’, ‘Really Boring Track’, ‘Okay Tracks’, ‘Great Tracks’ and ‘Just as Cliché Outro Track’. Really Voices of Destiny had enough material for a decent EP here, which it may as well be with so much filler within the album in one solid block. Even one more great track could have just about pushed Power Dive into purely average territory, since Maike Holzmann really does shine vocally, but with far more average to bad stuff outweighing the good stuff, I ultimately have to consider this a below average symphonic metal release.

4.3/10

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven(http://metaltube.freeforums.org))

Stephen Four years in silence and they came up with this ? I can't help to say but I'm totally disappointed. Well not too much because I haven't expecting anything from that camp since Tarja left and the only thing that interest me now is Vuorinen's side project, BROTHER FIRETRIBE, but with a long tour coming ahead to support this new album, looks like there'll be no new BF album until 2013 and that just pissed me off.

I don't have any problem with Olzon's vocal like many other. I think she's okay even though I have to admit she's inferior and less powerful than Turunen, but weakness of this album is obviously on the fact that they're forcing too much to blend the album with the upcoming movie, hence making the whole sound is like a colossal movie score and not a great metal album like what they had done in the past, not to mention the painful 75-minutes duration and only half of the songs that I'm fond of.

'Storytime', the first single, is the most appealing track for me. The dark nuance made you feel like you're trapped in a wicked circus, the massive choir is awesome, I love this song. But aside from the fourth track, 'I Want My Tears Back' which is a nice commercial track with Celtic melodies, the first half was swarmed with mediocrity. 'Ghost River' has nice riffs but lack of beautiful chorus and 'Slow, Love, Slow' is contradictive to any of their style which is sounds like an old American jazz. The intro on 'Scaretale' is too long and with 'Arabesque', both will be good as score but not metal.

The second half is better. 'Turn Loose The Mermaids' is melancholic and 'Last Ride of The Day' is the classic Nightwish all over the place. The problem is in 'Song of Myself', they bored me to death after the first 3 minutes, and I can't believe I had wasted the 13-minutes of my life for it. Maybe I was expecting a contender to their classic, I'm not a hater of concept album anyway, in fact I have many albums that I love, but not this one.

As a soundtrack album, 'Imaginaerum' might do okay, but as a symphonic metal album, I'm on the other side of the river. 65% at best and I know they’re better than this!

Stephen Think of a more progressive approach of NIGHTWISH with some neoclassical elements and less speedy in rhythm, and you'll get EDENBRIDGE. 'Sunrise In Eden' marks their first step and in a glance, I didn't realize this is already 12 years old. Year 2000 isn't a bright year for non-mainstream metal, especially when alternative/nu-metal still reign the world, but EDENBRIDGE deserved an appreciation for this idealistic mission, giving something fresh for the community.

The concept is actually pretty interesting but what bugs me is the lack of strength in songwriting. When you heard NIGHTWISH or WITHIN TEMPTATION, you can always find two or three songs that strike you fast and hard in the first spin but you can't find that here. Best tracks here perhaps only the ballads 'Forever Shine On' and 'Take Me Back' with Sabine's angelic vocal, but then you started to doubt, why would a metal album's highlight are in ballads.

Because the fastest tracks here are relatively weaker. 'Cheyenne Spirit', is good but it's hard to say it's a memorable tune. 'Wings of The Wind' is complex but boring to be honest. 'Midnight At Noon' is a good and safe uptempo track. The title track started with a nice oriental intro, but the 8-minutes duration is painful as they walk with a very average tune.

Another low thing here is that 'Holy Fire' is totally a waste, chaotic track with no good melodies at all. 'My Last Step Beyond' that serves as the epic part of this album, running in 10-minutes, isn't bad, but not great enough to catapult this album to any point beyond 65%-70%.

In the end, it’s just a medicore debut, buy only if it's extremely cheap and recommended to symphonic metal enthusiast only.

Time Signature Beyond horizon...

Genre: symphonic metal

"Maria Magdalena? Ain't that a pop song?". Why yes, it is, it is a pop song from the 80s by the German singer, Sandra, and, yes, it is that exact song that this Visions of Atlantis EP is named after. And, as you have guessed, the reason is that there is a cover version of the song on the EP. Needless to say, it has been seriously metallized and now has crunchy guitars, heavy riffage and powerful drums as well as Vision of Atlantis' trademark symphonic effects. Actually, Visions of Atlantis prove that 'Maria Magdalena' sounds just as good as a 2011 symphonic metal song as it does as a 1985 pop song. One of the strengths of the pop song, which Visions of Atlantis have thankfully retained is its memorable and very catchy chorus.

The other tracks are original Vision of Atlantis compositions. The style is basically midtempo modern power metal with symphonic effects. The focus is, however, on the guitar riffage and the vocal melodies, and the symphonic effects are kept in the background, which also keeps the cheese-o-meter comfortably out of the red. 'Melancholia' and 'Change of Tides' are quite solid and catchy symphonic power metal tracks, and especially the former has some very strong vocal hooklines, and, while the tracks are not really groundbreaking or out of the ordinary, I think they are quite good. The same goes for 'Distant Shores', while 'Last Shut of your Eyes' and 'Beyond Horizon' are epic ballads which, I must admit, do not really rock my world. I mean, they are well written with lots of melody, and I am sure that fans of epic metal ballads will absolutely love them... they just do not appeal that much to me.

As has almost become a typical feature of symphonic power metal, the vocal duties are shared by a male vocalist and a female vocalist, and this combination works quite well, although I am not a fan of it per se, and - while the vocalists are incredibly skilled - I think that they lack the power to match the heaviness of the crunchy guitar riffs.

The main attraction of this release is, for my money, the cover version of 'Maria Magdalena' as well as the very strong and catchy 'Melancholia'. The remaining tracks will probably appeal mostly to people who are already fans of the band.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)

adg211288 Imaginaerum, the seventh album from Finnish symphonic metal act Nightwish, is not, in any way, an easy album to review. Somewhere in this album I’m pretty confident that a masterpiece, a work of art even, is just waiting to be found. Unfortunately finding it really is the trick here. This is not an album that can really be judged fairly from a single or even a few listens. During my early listens I have to say I thought this album was the worst thing the band had ever done, and the next couple didn’t make it seem any better either. In fact, three listens down the road I actually started writing a very different review than this one for the album, one that would have seen Imaginaerum ranked alongside the very worst releases I’ve reviewed from 2011. But this is an album by Nightwish, and that means it isn’t something I write off lightly. Nightwish was one of the very first metal bands I discovered, and one whom I stuck by even when they did the unthinkable and fired their stunning vocalist Tarja Turunen. I felt I owed it to myself perhaps most of all to keep trying Imaginaerum in an attempt to get it to click. Finally, after about half a dozen listens, the album started to give up the goods.

I think that in one way Nightwish deliberately tried to mislead their audience in the build up to the release of Imaginaerum. I’m talking of course about its lead single, Storytime, a track that is so much the most typical Nightwish track on offer that it gave me a strong sense of ‘I’ve heard this all before’ when listening to it. Still does for that matter but read on. It’s most certainly a safe bet for the first single, and anyone who liked the band’s last couple of albums Once (2004) and Dark Passion Play (2007) are likely to lap this track up. The fact of the matter is though that this really is the most typical Nightwish track on Imaginaerum, and the rest of the album reveals surprise after surprise. This is still mostly a symphonic metal album, although Nightwish’s power metal inclinations have been largely dropped on this one, to be replaced by a whole host of other things including a healthy dose of Celtic folk, along with more moderate doses of folk metal, jazz, and even avant-garde metal stuff. You could I guess even consider it somewhat cabaret.

Imaginaerum is a release that just promised to be grandiose. To a point it is, but for me, even though now I’ve got into the album, I find it to be something of a disappointment. The burning question really is what happened to the twenty minute track that was spoken of in some interviews while the album was in production. While artists saying things before their albums are out and changing their minds during production isn’t uncommon, I can’t help but feel some kind of sadness for the total absence of this idea. Nightwish leader Tuomas Holopainen is a great symphonic metal composer. He proved that extremely well with Dark Passion Play’s epic opener The Poet and the Pendulum, which was and still arguably is the band’s crowning achievement. The idea of an even more epic twenty minute track had a lot of appeal for me, as I’m sure it did for many others as well. The closest we get is Song of Myself, which in comparison to what was expected comes as a kick in the teeth really. It’s good enough I suppose, but deep down is really only half a song, since the second half of it is given over to a recital of a poem that inspired the track. It fits into the album pretty well, being the second from last track when things are starting to reach a conclusion, but given what was originally spoken of, it’s a kick in the teeth all the same, mostly because in context of all the tracks, it’s not really an album highlight. Given that even with the poem this is ‘the epic one’ of the album, and ignoring the above which you may argue is personal bias on my part, this is still the most disappointing thing about Imaginaerum. There’s nothing that relives the glory of Nightwish’s past epics.

That is not to say that Imaginaerum is without any highlights. The highlights here are just to be found in shorter tracks such as the semi folk metal infused piece I Want My Tears Back, or one of the few power metal influenced numbers, Last Ride of the Day. I must say that I’ve become extremely partial to Scaretale above all others though, a seven and half minute track that on the face of it may seem another typical Nightwish track with epic symphonic parts, but is also an excursion into the weird and wonderful realm of the avant-garde, mostly in the vocal department. This is a real wacky song and totally unexpected, though perhaps not as much so as Slow, Love, Slow, a jazz track inspired by American 1930’s nightclub music. That isn’t really a favourite of mine in any way, but they pull it off pretty well. It works with the album, although along the lines of Imaginaerum taking a while to reveal its secrets, this one did seem very boring at first.

Slow, Love, Slow is just one of a few ballad tracks. The opening Taikatalvi, a Finnish language track sung by Marco Hietala alone, while more of an introduction than anything also falls into this category, as does Turn Loose The Mermaids and The Crow, The Owl and The Dove. Of those latter two I would consider Turn Loose the Mermaids to number amongst Imaginaerum’s very best tracks. This is very Celtic folk flavoured, and a beautiful song. The Crow, The Owl and the Dove is pretty much in the same vein, but just doesn’t hold as much charm as Turn Loose the Mermaids, which has quite addictive lyrics. Normally for a metal album I might criticise this amount of balladry, but since its symphonic metal, a style that doesn’t shy away from commercial ideas, it gets away with it, although this is also because that Turn Loose the Mermaids, along with Scaretale, represents the very best of what Imaginaerum has to offer. You might argue that it’s a problem that ballads are better than the metal tracks in a metal album, but somehow that doesn’t really matter with Imaginaerum. Imaginaerum may be primarily a symphonic metal album, but it’s very clear that it isn’t intended to be tied down to a single genre. I really like that about it, although it really did throw me off a bit during those early listens. Prior to this you might have, not unjustly in my opinion, have said that Nightwish was becoming a predictable band. Then along comes Imaginaerum to slap you in the face; you’re stunned for a moment, but it’s now got your attention. In this case you’ll realise that Nightwish isn’t quite as stagnant as you may have thought.

There’s also some instrumental stuff on the album, in the form of the interlude Arabesque, and the closing title track, which reprises all the main themes from the other songs on the album, with the intent of forming an ending credits style piece. As you’re likely aware, the album Imaginaerum is to be accompanied by a movie of the same name, to be released during 2012. It seems that these tracks are designed more for the film than the album, but they work well enough. I actually quite like the reprises at the end as they give a feeling of closing to the musical journey that is Imaginaerum.

A Nightwish review probably wouldn’t be complete without some mention of the vocals, since new vocalist Anette Olzon attracted much criticism with her first outing with the band, though I think it is fair to say that much of this was because she wasn’t Tarja Turunen II. Mind you knowing people like I do, she’d likely have got just as much criticism if she had sounded exactly like Tarja. Regardless I am impressed with her vocals more on Imaginaerum than I was on Dark Passion Play. She sounds like she belongs here now, more so because of Nightwish breaking their mould with Imaginaerum. Much of Dark Passion Play’s material seemed to scream for Tarja’s abilities, but Imaginaerum seems much more tailored for Anette. Marco Hietala’s vocals work well as always, ranging from melodic to some more gruffer stuff, as used in Ghost River, which is another quite weird track, albeit not up to the weirdness level of Scaretale.

Coming full circle with my opening paragraph, I’m very sure that there’s a masterpiece hidden in Imaginaerum somewhere, but ultimately I’m yet to find it even though I really enjoy the release now and have listened to it several times prior to writing this review. Maybe many listens down the track I may feel the need to revisit this review, but for now the album does ultimately stand as just a generally positive experience, but nothing more. It is still a disappointment in some aspects, and to be honest this isn’t really significantly better or worse than the last couple of albums by the band, but I do feel that it is a step in the right direction for the band given the decision to go with a lead singer so drastically different from her predecessor. This is a Nightwish whose music doesn’t need the operatic vocal. This is a Nightwish who prove that they can still make a symphonic metal album that isn’t overly commercial. This is a Nightwish who, disappointments aside, have awakened my interest in them anew. Now I’m just left hoping they don’t leave it so long between albums again. In the meantime there’s the accompanying film to look forward to, which if it’s any bit as mad as the album, promises to be one wild ride in itself.

8.3/10

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)

Conor Fynes 'I' - Xerath (7/10)

Held as one of the most acclaimed metal debuts in 2009, Xerath comes onto the scene with a fairly exciting sound. Although the djent, Meshuggah-laden sound that Xerath plays was already well trodden by the time this album was released, Xerath adds something new and exciting to it; an orchestral, symphonic backing. It comes as no surprise then, that Xerath holds a very epic sound to them. Xerath has a very professional sound to them, even this early on, and while I found myself very disappointed by their sophomore, Xerath shows alot of potential with this impressive first album.

When describing their sound, I hear the powerful chugging grooves of bands like Gojira and Meshuggah, along with the thrashy grandeur of Strapping Young Lad. On top of that, there is this orchestral sound that follows the metal instruments throughout this album, adding plenty of depth to the sound, although it rarely ever takes a forefront in Xerath's music. Speaking of the band's metal sound, it is heavy and oftimes technical, with plenty of chuggy riffs to make up the meat of the band's sound. The vocals here are growled and screamed, like a less melodic Joe Duplantier (of Gojira). The riffs and instrumentation are focused more on rhythm than melody, although the orchestral element adds a slightly more melodic and harmonious edge. True enough, there are plenty of riffs here that get my head banging, although overall, I find that there could have been some extra melodies or more memorable moments around the album to grasp onto. As it stands, Xerath's 'I' sounds more or less the same all throughout, with the obvious 'Interlude' exception being composed only of the symphonic element.

As far as orchestral sounds go in metal, much of it does pass me as being a gimmick, attempting to get the depth of a symphony, without the effort of a complex arrangement. I experienced that disappointment on the band's second album 'II', but in retrospect, 'I' actually has some very complimentary orchestral elements. It would be somewhat boring without the metal elements, but there is an authentic sound to the symphonic elements, and they have a great effect for the atmosphere. Taking Xerath's music from the orchestral angle, it sounds alot like the incidental music for some science fiction epic soundtrack.

Xerath has made a very professional sounding album here, and at a perfect length for this sort of music, it never gets boring. I would have liked some more variety and a sense of surprise in music like this, as Xerath never changes lanes from the first song to last. They do however have a great grasp of their style on this album, and clever enough to bring something new to the table, this is a band that stands on their own two feet in the crowded djent community.

Marty McFly Power Metal type music (not sure about exact genre/type) with strong hints of classical influences (including the instrument used in at least two computer game soundtracks - Warcraft II & Might and Magic VII, both fantasy themed, hence the feeling).

Even it's nice music, I can't help but feel that some elements in it are too similar (it's highly "themed" album). Lyrics are of standard sort I suppose.

Strongly melodic, sometimes cheesy (but that is inevitable in this genre I suppose), but not too much. Enjoyable album for those who want less complex, highly melodic and "nuevo" medieval styling (seems popular in 90s).

Wilytank So, I listen to Within Temptation's 'Enter' to condition myself before listening to their newest offering, 'The Unforgiving'. A lot must have happened between '97 and now, because the sound has changed a little drastically.

Now, there are times when that can be a good thing; but in this case, it isn't.

Straight from "Shot in the Dark", the impression is "This is Evanescence with Rihanna's vocals mixed with Amy Lee's. Wtf?" The music in "Faster" and "Iron" sounds like is was taken (stolen?) from an Amorphis song. In fact, there are times on this album where I wonder if Within Temptation actually did rip off Amorphis or Evanescence on this album.

The reason why I have brought up Evanescence is 1): The female vocalists, and 2): the popish appeal of the music. How Within Temptation went from a pretty interesting gothic metal band in '97 to this symphonic pop/rock now is beyond me. They've got epic sounding music in a vein NEAR Amorphis, but at least Amorphis has the progressive elements to make their music more interesting. All the guitar riffs are really simple and uninteresting. All the lyrics are pretty lame and forgettable.

Another album that won't make it on my 2011 list.

Conor Fynes 'II' - Xerath (4/10)

Xerath is a band from the UK that got some people excited with their debut. In 2009, the roman-numerically designated 'I' impressed many who listened with its powerhouse take on progressive metal, falling somewhat into what some call the 'djent' sound in metal, but also bringing some new sounds to the table, most notably some orchestral sounds. Technically impressive progressive metal with symphonic undertones is a fascinating formula in concept, and with their follow-up album 'II', Xerath continues to explore this sound. True enough to the acclaim I've been hearing about the band, they certainly know how to bring their skill as musicians to the table. All the same however, I am finding that this band's so-called 'distinctive' elements pass me as being little more than gimmicks, although by all intents, this is a decent contribution to the djent music community.

What one is bound to hear on a song from this album will generally consist of heavy, palm- muted guitar riffs that sound quite a bit like Meshuggah, as well as some screamed vocals and a heavy synth presence. For those uninformed about the djent sound, it is essentially a group of bands that dabble in the strange rhythms and palm-muted guitar techniques that Meshuggah largely pioneered, and as far as emulating Meshuggah's deep grooves go, Xerath succeeds. These are technical riffs that have 'progressive metal' spelled all over them, although despite the technical achievement of these guitar parts, there is very little melodic structure to them, and they start feeling all the same by the time the album is over. While Xerath executes their sound beautifully, the inherent lack of melody or surprise in this music led me feeling the unwanted sense of deja vu long before the album was over, and it makes the album's fifty-odd minute length feel much longer than it actually is.

The thing that many have been really swooning over with this band are the so-called orchestral elements. Xerath self-proclaims themselves to be 'orchestral groove metal', and while they do have the effective repetition and groove aspect down, the orchestral element here was what really disappointed me. Instead of a full blown symphonic arrangement or even fleshed string section as the term 'orchestral' implies, I was confronted by fairly cheap- sounding emulations, most likely either done on a computer, or with a synth. It's quite understandable that a working band is not often able to afford an orchestra, but things could have still worked out brilliantly if the arrangements here were anything that truly lived up to an orchestral standard. Instead, there is no symphonic element that gets me even close to thinking I'm hearing an orchestral score, usually, the orchestra is merely adding a deeper sound miles behind the metal aspect of Xerath, sustaining a note and then changing with the chords. The symphonic presence here does add a new depth to the band's sound, but overall, it feels more like a half-successful gimmick to distinguish themselves, rather than a valid artistic accomplishment.

Xerath's 'II' is a well-performed album, but there is nothing to the music that ever really excites me; the djenty tones and proggy metal riffs are all things that have been done much better by other acts doing a similar thing, and while Xerath should be acknowledged for trying to bring something new to the sound, the orchestral thing isn't doing much for them.

adg211288 Symphonic metal. Tell me now, when you see or hear that term who is the first band that you think of? Is it Nightwish? Or maybe it’s one of the many Dutch bands such as Within Temptation, Epica, or the now defunct After Forever? Regardless, I suspect most people reading this review will be thinking of those bands or similar when they consider symphonic metal. Eyes of a Monument is the debut full-length album from Canada’s Alpthraum. It’s a symphonic metal album. And it sounds nothing like those bands I mentioned above.

There’s a slight problem though, it’s that Alpthraum has actually been around for a little while now, but were producing ambient black metal and released two demos of such material, in 2009 and 2010, both of which have also been recently re-issued together on a limited CD run. Black metal and symphonic metal are often mixed it is true, but Eyes of a Monument is a complete abandonment of anything remotely black metal. Given the reputation black metal has as something of a purist genre, I cannot help but suspect that anyone who supported Alpthraum in past years is going to be in for something of a disappointment when coming to this album. Even for such a little known artist so early in its musical journey I expect there may even be a few sell-out claims. Symphonic metal is, after all, widely considered as one of the more commercially inclined metal music styles, in contrast to black metal which is supposed to be the exact opposite. Therefore die-hard black metal fans that enjoyed Alpthraum’s earlier output are advised to proceed with caution when approaching Eyes of a Monument, since this is completely different to what the band was producing previously. However I also advise that before writing Alpthraum off, that you continue reading this review.

Although I mentioned above about symphonic metal being seen as one of the more commercial metal genres, Eyes of a Monument is actually anything but. The music is both dark and creepy in its delivery, as well as having many musically epic moments. The vocals are the real oddball though, as they are placed sort of low in the mix. They’re still very audible, but they seem designed to work with the overall atmosphere of the record, rather than being in your face, or even being used to carry the songs in the traditional sense. They’re just there to add to the dark evil atmosphere of the album. In that they work to great effect, which is a good thing because really they’re actually quite unremarkable, and any major focus on the vocals would have really killed this album.

The instrumentation, like much symphonic metal, has its metal side take something of a back seat so that the symphonic side can shine. And shine it does, although I’m also pleased to report that the metal side has its cool moments as well. The riffs are written in such a way that, on their own they wouldn’t really be worth writing home about, but when combined with the symphonies, are very effective. There are some lead parts from the guitars, but they’re used to add the atmosphere, as any good symphonic release should do.

I’m pleasantly surprised by Eyes of a Monument. Alpthraum released a free four track promo in their new symphonic style in 2010 and to be honest I wasn’t much impressed with it, mainly because the production didn’t do the music any justice, and I was of two minds whether I really wanted to bother with Eyes of a Monument. I’m glad I did though, as the production is done just right on the album, which results in a much better listening experience. If ‘dark and creepy’ is your thing then Eyes of a Monument is definitely an album for you.

This is a solid debut full-length. It’s also a nice refreshing change on the symphonic metal genre, which is pretty much dominated by bands such as those I mentioned in the opening of this review, and really, only a few of those have ever delivered anything that was truly exceptional. While I wouldn’t say at the end of the day that Eyes of a Monument is truly exceptional either (it’s good, but not a masterpiece), it’s certainly worth checking out by anyone who enjoys symphonic ideas in metal music and is sick of Nightwish clones. I will be watching Alpthraum’s career with great interest.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven, scoring 7.9/10)

J-Man England's Xerath really hit a home run with their debut full-length, I, back in 2009. The band's unique blend of groove metal and symphonic orchestrations immediately gained them recognition from metal fans worldwide - myself included. Two years later, and Xerath have returned with the equally imaginatively-titled II. While still staying true to their core sound, the band sounds even more mature and experienced this time around, making II the best release Xerath has put together to date. Anyone who enjoys groove metal, symphonic keyboards, and progressive overtones definitely owes it to themselves to check out yet another fantastic effort from Xerath.

Like their debut album, the music on II is very much like Swedish veterans Meshuggah, but with orchestrations and a slightly more melodic approach. If you're an extreme metal purist, don't let the symphonic keyboards scare you away - they are extremely well-done and never detract from the other instrumentation, but instead add a haunting element to Xerath's music. Aside from the orchestral elements, the music here is a heavy and technical mix of thrash metal, death metal, and groove metal; mostly played in a downtuned, "djent" style. Although music this heavy and technical could get monotonous, II is an exceptionally well-written album and every composition is memorable, given enough time to sink in. This does take a few spins to fully grasp, but once you give it the time it deserves, II reveals itself as a terrific album.

The production and musicianship here are both absolutely wonderful. I remember back when I came out that I was very impressed by the technical capabilities of Xerath, and it seems that they've improved even more since then. I especially have to mention guitarist Owain Williams and drummer Michael Pitman when discussing the musicianship here - both of these guys are especially spectacular musicians, and an absolute blast to listen to. As previously mentioned, the production is great and provides a slick, powerful, and polished sound that suits the music perfectly.

In case you haven't checked out Xerath yet, II is probably their best release to date. This album shows a band oozing with creativity, inspiration, and plenty of damn good extreme metal to offer. II should reveal itself as one of the year's best metal albums - it really is that good. Anyone who enjoys crushingly heavy groove metal with a sense of melody and taste for orchestrations should definitely further investigate this great album. 4 stars are well-deserved.

cennsor [review originally published on http://thecennsor.wordpress.com/]

Being to the premiere concert Epica put out in Amsterdam a few days prior to the release of their new full-lenght Design Your Universe was probably the worst idea I could come up with – in order to keep this review objective. Too late, I guess. And besides being witness to hell of an output (the show, even choreographically speaking, was great), I had the chance to hear how the (almost) whole new album sounds like on stage. And that falls nowhere short from its studio value: magnificent.

For those who might be wondering: the addition of Ariën van Weesenbeek on drums did bring a whole new approach to the songwriting. So did the add-on of guitarist Isaac Delahaye (to be held responsible for the unexpected appearance of several solos here and there). As a result, Epica‘s sound has (finally?) become much heavier and aggressive, yet of course still awesomely balanced by their trademark penchant for symphonic melody.

This whole new attitude also carried an impact to vocals. Fear not: our beloved operatic Simone can still hit quite some high notes. But you’ll have to appreciate the variety to her singing style, to be heard (I’m picking my own favourite example, but many more are possible) on Martyr of the Free Word, which moreover features a gregorian-like choir of exquisite quality. Mark‘s grunts are also still there, as well as Ariën‘s. We might as well mention Tony Kakko‘s contribution on the duet-ballad White Waters — again, a good effort, even in the ear of a non-fan of Sonata Arctica‘s like me.

But the force of this album lies in the way a couple of elements have fallen into place, even more than before. Epica have been building on a very unique style in the direction of a more and more mature symphonic sound, rising out of a rib of the now dead After Forever to develop into a yardstick in their genre. Whoever would’ve looked up at Nightwish, some years ago, as the quintessence of symphonic metal, has now a younger act to reckon with — and that does say something.

Design Your Universe is a testament to Epica‘s well-deserved leading role in the sub-genre of symphonic metal. Slashy guitar riffs, majestic arrangements, far crunchier rhythms and more varied vocal lines, all merged into a very mature songwriting, couldn’t but lead to very worthy nominee for “album of the year”. Yeah, you’ve heard me. Here’s more than enough to earn the Cennsor‘s greatest honor for 2009. Coming out straight after one of my favourite bands’ most recent output (see previous review), that again means quite something.

Let me stress on but one of the elements leading to a perfect album that I’ve credited Design Your Universe to possess. It’s the positioning of the songs throughout the record. Not to overrate it, but it can certainly help an album gain a steady spot on your playlist. The scheme short intro+bursting opener with the long title track as a closer still finds its place here. Resign to Surrender in fact already sets the tone for the rest of the album: one definitely gets the impression (the hope?) a new, higher level of heaviness is what we’re going to deal with here. Which is definitely the case, as shown by the couplet Martyr of the Free Word – Our Destiny and again, later on, by yet another pair of pretty heavy pieces, Deconstruct and Semblance of Liberty, the latter being sort of Epica‘s own reprocessing of Fear Factory‘s Replica they had covered on their previous album.

After Our Destiny, the 13 minute long epic Kingdom of Heaven pinpoints the album’s coordinates (heaviness on a symphonic note, with very proggish syncopated riffs in between), to give way to an interlude followed in its turn by the TDC-styled Burn to a Cinder. Time for a tender piano ballad (Tides of Time), then back to some heaviness, and finally the aforementioned White Waters and the title track.

The owners of the album’s limited edition will be further pleased with Incentive, a great combination of grunt vocals, hammering drumming and very epic cues.

THUS SPAKE THE CENNSOR: To try and go into even further details couldn’t however replace the great experience, filled with what is really an epic feeling, you’ll undergo if you actually listen to Design Your Universe. The Cennsor advices to go have a listen, for if you already liked Epica, you’ll now stick with them much tighter. 9/10

Isa A beautiful combination of symphonic metal and medieval neo-romantic classical music.

The Divine Conspiracy, the most recent of Epica's discography as of this review, really does show blatantly symphonic metal at its best. The female vocalist Simone Simons is well known in the metal community for a good reason, and she has my utmost approval as a classical singer myself. Even though she doesn't sing with a classical style, it is nonetheless quality singing with a sense of vocal control and technique. This is legit composition here, incredibly lush and convincing choral and orchestral parts of the modern medieval neo-romantic style, the sort of thing you'd here playing D&D-based RPGs, as well as some world music influence. It's still metal in the vein of Nightwish, but Epica's music is far more developed and artistic than their Finnish counterpart, with much more instrumental variation and mixture of genres. The lyrics are great, often addressing philosophical and political concepts without being overly pretentious or biased. The band has a very mature sound already, and it will be interesting for me to hear more of their follow-up works in the next few years.

The opener of the album introduces the medieval neo-romantic style with orchestra and chorus (singing in Latin!). Tracks 2-5 are the most accessible and "metal" of the album, which is common with a lot of prog; first few tracks hook the listener in to the band, then the album gets more artistic and creative, expanding the ears of the listener, and this album is a perfect example of this. La'petach Chatat Rovetz: The Final Embrace presents a middle-eastern world music composition, very delightful and fits into the flow of the album beautifully. The series of the Final Embrace are the best and most "prog" sounding tracks on the album, Living a Lie starts of with classical melismatic chant in asymmetric meter - what more could I ask for as a huge fan of Gregorian Chant and prog? What's more there is a Catholic prayer in Latin, enunciated correctly (for once) which blows my mind as an orthodox Catholic. This is probably the best track on the album in general. Fools of Damnation starts of with middle-eastern singing style most associated with Islam, which then leads into the best chorus of the album talking about totalitarianism and an instrumental section with asymmetric meter, organ, classical singing, back into the chorus. Absolutely solid. The album continues with more decent tracks; Safegaurd to Paradise is a neo-romantic ballad that really shows off Simon's vocal abilities and the band's softer and more intimate side. The album comes to a great close with the 13 minute opus album title track.

The only main problem I have with this problem is how long it is. While there is a lot of good variation of sound in each track, the tracks all start to sound very similar after an hour, mainly as a result of the symphonic metal influence, especially the heavy guitar riffs that sound very the same for many of the songs. Each track is fantastic on its own, and the album flows very well, but you can have too much of a good thing for too long, which is definitely the case with this album.

If you like symphonic metal, especially on the more progressive side, this album is essential for you. Overall I strongly recommend this to listeners of metal, especially those who like the kind of modern classical music that you here in medieval-based RPGs. The two genres combine beautifully, which Epica demonstrate with this solid album.

Stephen Within Temptation returns again to the scene after being silence for 4 years since their highly acclaimed 'The Heart of Everything' by bringing something new, a conceptual-driven album which is their first attempt and simultaneously released with the comic book under the same title, "The Unforgiving".

As we all know, Within Temptation had started to move away from their symphonic/gothic roots to incorporate more commercial approach and in "The Unforgiving", they pushed this even more, and this album turns out to be an accessible melodic metal record still with the symphonic and gothic trace in their very own style, which might not a good news for earlier fans but definitely the best move in my opinion.

After the enigmatic intro of 'Why Not Me', WT kicks in with the dreamy atmospheric synth to combine the powerful Verse with Sharon's enchanting voice. The chorus is spectacular and the guitar solo part is a blast. I conclude that this is simply the greatest tune of the album after more than 5 spins. "In The Middle of The Night" is a cracking uptempo tune with a flawless arrangement and Sharon's vocal is the center of the show. "Faster" is the first single but funny I don't think it's as great as the previous two.

"Fire And Ice" is a haunting metallic ballad, along with "Lost" and "Stairway To The Skies", both are just great pieces of WT's mellow side. "Iron", "Sinead", and "A Demon's Fate" are another personal favorites and the rest tracks are around good level and slightly inferior than the other. The production is excellent, suits the music very well, and the best thing of this album is that it just keeps getting better after repetitive spins. A superb release and undoubtedly deserved the high rank to be one of the highlights of 2011 !

adg211288 Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross is a Symphonic Metal release by legendary knighted actor Christopher Lee, an epic concept piece about the life of Lee’s ancestor, The First Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne. The concept of an 87 year old man suddenly bringing out a metal album is bound to attract attention from many sources, but ultimately will he or won’t he be criticised for taking on a genre such as metal? Well I for one think he should be praised for this work, even if he didn’t write the music or the lyrics, because the guy has an epic voice (just watch his performance in The Lord of the Rings), and he should be praised for his vocals no matter what you might feel about the compositions.

So let’s talk about those, well first as far as first impressions of the album go, you could call it SYMPHONIC metal. So yeah, it’s heavily symphonic, and the metal elements don’t always come across as that overly heavy, though they are present and this is definitely an album with metal in it. Is it enough to actually class it as metal? Personally I’d say yes, when the metal comes it is metal, but what bothers me with that claim is that after track 1, Overture, you don’t really hear a trace of metal again to track 5, Act II: The Iron Crown Of Lombardy. This is quite a big time gap for a metal album not to have metal sounds, but one thing that should be taken into consideration is that each of the many songs, or Acts as they call them have an intro track, effectively doubling the number of tracks, so there’s actually only one proper song in there (Act I: King Of The Franks), and to be honest it’s not uncommon for established symphonic metal bands to have a completely symphonic track on their albums, I can name several by Nightwish or Within Temptation, and Epica even did a whole album like that. The other main tracks (or Acts, whatever you want to call them), all have metal in them, though there are many sections in the songs that don’t. Take Act III: The Bloody Verdict Of Verden for example. Intro and verses have no metal, but the chorus and outro does so it’s about 50/50. Otherwise this is best considered as film score music, and pretty good film score music at that.

Enough on whether the album is metal or not. To me, it’s metal enough, but since I increasingly find myself not caring if what I listen to appears on Encyclopaedia Metallum (note – this album doesn’t), maybe I am not the best of judges. Let’s talk about if the album is any good or not.

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: Charlemagne is actually a very epic piece of music. The tracks effortlessly run into each other and Lee is perfect in the lead role. The album could actually be liked to what artists such as Ayreon and Avantasia do; it is a concept album with a vocal cast, a metal opera if you will. Lee of course takes the lead role as Charlemagne's ghost, which many other singers taking others roles, included a younger version of the title character. I don’t know any of the names and perhaps this is where the album falls short, it’s metal but made by people who don’t appear to be associated with metal aside from Lee himself (who has worked with the likes of Manowar and Rhapsody of Fire). The composer, Marco Sabiu, for one, is credited for being known for working with the likes of Take That and Kylie Minogue. So, maybe not the best of references when trying to sell an album aimed at metal fans. For what’s it’s worth he did a good enough job, since I do really like this album, however I wouldn’t be doing my job as a reviewer if I didn’t point out from a metal perspective that if this had been composed by a metal composer, the result would have been much different. However as it stands the album is pretty solid, not a masterpiece for sure but overall it's pretty impressive.

My personal favourite track from Charlemagne is Act III: The Bloody Verdict Of Verden. That “I shed the blood of Saxon men” line is rather memorable I must admit. Act IV: The Age Of Oneness Out Of Diversity is a pretty strong second place.

The only thing that is really irksome about this album is that it has so many intro tracks. There are five even if you discount the actual track 1, Overture. Each features narration to tell the story. This suits for this kind of album, but really I feel they would have better fitted as part of the main tracks, especially since they don’t seem to have a probably having the narration is these as well.

Overall though I've found Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross to be quite a nice surprise. I would have liked perhaps a bit more balance between the symphonic metal and film score influences though.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven, scoring 7.5/10)

adg211288 My Winter Storm is the second solo album from former Nightwish lead singer Tarja Turunen, here performing under just Tarja. While it is the second album it is actually the first release from her that returns to the more symphonic metal sounds of her former band, albeit in a less grand style. While I’ve personally found the compositions somewhat lacking here, fans can be rest assured that My Winter Storm contains a top notch vocal performance. Overall the songs on the album fall into two groups, classical and metal, although with one particular track aside, this isn’t actually a very heavy album from Tarja.

Putting aside the fact that the album could have been heavier, it is a decent enough album with some killer operatically voiced songs, but has several other faults, some of which are just plain stupid. The most annoying fault is that fact that My Winter Storm begins with a 27 second intro track which is as good as the same tune as at the start of the first proper song, I Walk Alone. What was the point in that I ask? It should have been one song and done with it. It would not be so bad, had not this process been repeated not once, but three more times with Seeking for the Reign/The Reign, The Escape of the Doll/My Little Phoenix and Sunset/Damned and Divine. This is such a stupid thing to do in my opinion, each intro flows into its song like it’s a part of the same composition, and I think the album would have sounded better if they had been.

Another fault is Tarja’s utterly ridiculous cover of the Alice Copper classic, Poison. I won’t go so far as to say that she murders it, but it sounds like she had a damn good try. She somehow manages to make a good song sound very cringe worthy to say the least.

The only song on My Winter Storm that instantly strikes me of being heavier and more metal than the rest is Ciaran's Well, which features a guitar tone which is twice as heavy as everything else on here. This album is all about Tarja’s voice, and as such, there are a lot of times when she focuses entirely on classical music such as The Reign and Damned and Divine. These are pretty nice pieces in their own right, especially vocally, but for a metal album I’m thinking that most may prefer more metal and less classical, even for a symphonic metal release.

Some songs are rather mediocre I’m afraid to say, especially I Walk Alone, Sing For Me and Minor Heaven. Some go a step below into decidedly below average territory, but none more so than Oasis, the only song on the album that Tarja composed all on her own. It’s just plain boring. Tarja is one of the best female singers ever to appear in metal but now that the Tuomas Holopainen partnership has been broken, My Winter Storm seems to showcase a Tarja that has lost the songs that truly made her great (though as a note here, her next album had very much superior writing to much Nightwish work). Despite some decent writing efforts between her and a host of others on My Winter Storm, I can’t really say there’s anything of the standard of the songs she sang for Nightwish that her listeners were used to hearing her sing.

The better songs on My Winter Storm are Lost Northern Star, Boy and the Ghost, Damned and Divine, and Ciaran's Well. The Boy and the Ghost I think is the best song, but it is actually one of the ones which hardly has any of the rock/metal elements. It’s Tarja’s superb vocal performance that wins it for me.

I would recommend this album without hesitation to a fan of Tarja’s voice that wouldn’t care about the faults I outlined, but those who come to My Winter Storm looking for Nightwish will not find it. It’s still a good album, to the point that I do enjoy it a fair bit, but unfortunately it took Tarja to make a third album (2010’s What Lies Beneath) before I was really convinced by her solo work, so I wouldn’t recommend this album as a starting point, whether or not you’re coming from Nightwish or not. It may be retroactive to say it now given that it's several years since the album was released and what you're reading is an updated review due to yours truly not being happy with my writing skill when I first published this, but I personally only advise hearing this album after the following What Lies Beneath.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven, scoring 7.8/10)

adg211288 Metal and Tolkien. The two have been mixed many times in many different ways and here we have not only an album based around the man’s literacy works, but a band that seems to be completely obsessed by them right down to their imagry. It’s been done many times as I said but that certainly doesn’t mean the album and indeed the band aren’t any good. In fact this is the best Tolkien based metal band that I’ve heard to date.

Musically most of these Tolkien inspired albums/bands are very different but due to their common lyrical theme and always going to be compared. Well I’m going to break with that tradition and talk about this album, because this is a review for Battlelore, not Blind Guardian or Witchking or (insert Tolkien influenced band name here). So what we have here is basically symphonic metal but with influences from power metal and to a lesser degree gothic, progressive and maybe even a little melodic death metal, the former due to the vocals which are a mix of clean female, clean male and grunts. The progressive comes from the fact that Battlelore do mix several styles of metal music and that some of their song structures are far from being standard. They are not progressive enough to be consider a progressive metal band however, the influence is that minor. Battlelore’s guitar riffs are very heavy and their keyboards add an extra layer to their overall sound. The drumming is impressive enough and the songs are very well composed, not least due to the fact that each is distinct in its own right and as Where the Shadows Lie moves forward the listener will not know what direction they are about to be taken.

Special mention before I talk about the songs to the vocal performance however. Battlelore have two vocalists, Kaisa Jouhki, the band’s female vocalist, doesn’t actual handle as much of the vocals here as on later records but her performance is stunning nevertheless. She is most prominent on Journey to Undying Lands and The Green Maid. The second vocalist, the male, is Patrik Mennander, who sometimes sings cleanly and at others growls. I must say, although this has no relevance to this album, that Battlelore was a much better band with Patrik on board, as the mix of three distinct vocal types gave them much more versatility. His replacement, Tomi Mykkanen, only growled on his first couple of albums with the band, and his cleans aren't a patch on Patrik's. Now back to the review. There is also one song on Where the Shadows Lie that has vocals done by guitarist Tommi Havo, but I’ll explain this in detail when I talk about the song (see ‘Raging Goblin’ below). To concluded this section however all I need to tell you is that Havo is a growler but he is much more harsh and extreme than Patrik is.

Now onto the songs themselves. Opening the album is Swordmaster. The vocals are dominated by Patrik, alternating between clean singing and his growl. The music is instantly heavy and fast paced, only slowing down for Kaisa’s vocal arrival in the clean bridge section of the song, which is the main case of where my unusual structures reference comes into play, as both main verses are done before the first chorus and we get the section which I called the bridge after only that one chorus section. The Grey Wizard is much more traditionally structured song and features Kaisa a lot more. Musically its more of the same but the vocal delivery is what makes the true difference to Swordmaster.

Raging Goblin on the other hand is an entirely different kettle of fish, and is certainly the most oddball track on the album. Here we lose Kaisa and Patrik and get Tommi Havo on vocals instead. It’s easy to know why this song is called Raging Goblin, and why Tommi’s vocals are credited as raging vocals in the album notes. The man sounds utterly berserk. This song is more like death metal that anything else but the lyrics, rather than make it seem brutal make is somewhat comical to listen to. The song is so out of place that I’m not actually sure if its inclusion was a good idea or not, as by the time it finished and the next track is starting (which in my opinion is the best track) I was left wondering; “Did I really just hear that?”

Luckily for me it was the fourth track, Journey to Undying Lands that drew me to this album in the first place, otherwise I may have had to skip back and restart it after the shock that Raging Goblin had caused me. The song begins with a very basic guitar line, before the second guitar hit’s the chords that announce the arrival of the rest of the instruments. The keyboard plays a vital role in the melody of the song while the guitars and bass thrash away over Kaisa’a clean vocals. The vocals quickly becoming a duet between Kaisa and Patrik, more so than in other songs because with this one it actually sounds like the pair are communicating with each other rather than just taking turns to sing. What is music epic about the song however is the fact that the music builds up a real sense of tension every time before Patrik begins a growled section. At other times the music quietens for Kaisa’s chorus section, adding another touch of a progressive influence to the album. The song is almost theatrical, as demonstrated in its music video.

At the other end of the music spectrum of Where the Shadows Lie is a song called The Green Maid which features only light music and most of the time only Kaisa’s voice. The clean guitar sound is very clean and while slightly basic sounding the tune is pretty good. It fits in well with the rest of the album but I can’t help but wonder if its here to balance out Raging Goblin. If so it does the job well.

Highlights from the remaining heavy material are Fangorn and Khazad-dum pt. 1 (Ages of Mithril). Fangorn has a standard structure with growled vocals for the verses, female vocals for the chorus and for the bridge Patrik switches to clean vocals. It’s more standard but very good. Khadzad-dum however only just misses out on being the song that I’d consider to be the album’s best, mainly because of the truly awesome guitar riff that starts the song and the excellent vocals from both lead singers.

The remaining tracks are Shadowgate and Ride With the Dragons. While good songs neither sticks in my mind as much as the tracks explained above. There is actually a tenth track hidden on the end of Ride With the Dragons which sees the band playing in a much more folksy style. It is however neither fantastic or entirely worthless, but being a hidden track I don't really factor it in the overall score given to the album.

Overall an exceptional release, not least due to the fact that this is the band’s first full-length CD. Highly recommended for fans of metal and Tolkien or fans of bands such as Lacuna Coil who want a more extreme metal edge to the music. It's also a great starting place for anyone interested in Battlelore even with them now many albums down the line.

(Originally posted at Heavy Metal Haven, scoring 9.3/10)

adg211288 II is the imaginatively titled second album from UK metal band Xerath. The band is one of those that is difficult to pigeonhole in any one sub-genre, their music usually ending up as a combination of progressive, symphonic, groove and a little bit of death metal (mostly in the vocals), though the groove and symphonic elements are what forms the core of the band’s sound. They’re also one of the bands being associated with this whole ‘djent’ scene, although I recently found out through an interview with the band that they consider the scene ridiculous (something this reviewer quite agrees with). The major difference to other bands lumped into that scene is that Xerath is one of the few that produces generally exciting and un-generic music.

II kicks off with lead single Unite to Defy, a track which really highlights the band’s symphonic side before kicking off into some groovy guitar riffs. The mostly screamed vocals fit the music extremely well and the track sets up the template for the Xerath sound that can be expected of the album from herein. That isn’t to say that the album is predictable, because it certainly isn’t. Each track has an identity of its own while retaining that Xerath sound. The symphonic elements in the band’s sound really make the album for me though, because it’s actually rare that you’ll find a symphonic metal album delivered in quite this manner, and it makes Xerath stand out from the crowd. The album has an incredible flow to it, which results in something really epic, and I must say that even with a length of nearly an hour I don’t want the experience to end.

With an album such as II where the quality of all the tracks maintains such a high standard it is impossible to single out a few highlights as this album is one big highlight. I’m not personally completely familiar with the band’s first album I, but from what I’ve heard from it II improves on it in every way possible, so I expect established fans of the first album will really lap II up, and I also expect that it will be catching the attention of many potential new fans, and may cause others who were not convinced by I to re-evaluate Xerath.

Overall II by Xerath is a very impressive beast from this young band and it sees them really hitting their stride. It is an album where the first impressions are excellent and subsequent listens take the album up even into higher levels of greatness. This is a great album from one of the UK’s most promising young metal bands, whom any self-respecting metal fan should be paying attention to.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)

Time Signature Forward thinking...

Genre: symphonic guitar hero rock/metal

This is pure instrumental guitar hero rock with lots of focus on the guitar, of course. With Mattson's heavy use of violins, cellos, other string instruments, keyboards and a general symphonic approach and very little rhythm guitar and some bass and drums which are, perhaps not minimalistic, then at least not very inspirational, "Aurora Borealis" is probably on the boundary, and for some perhaps beyond, what some people can accept as metal.

Not surprisingly, Mattson has a very neoclassical approach on this album, which means that shredding is inevitable. And there is some pretty impressive and mind-bogling shredding. But, thankfully, Mattson does not only restrict himself to shredding. He also delivers some very melodic solos, and there really is a lot of beautiful, inspiring, and - dare I say - fappable guitar work hear for the guitar fanboy geeks out there.

Although this is a guitar hero thing, and the focus is expected to be on the guitar, I think that the bass and the drums could have been given more attention. That would really have taken this album up to an even higher and more enjoyable level.

Recommended to those who are very passionate about guitar playing - be prepared to be impressed.

UMUR "Sitra Ahra" is the 13th full-length studio album by Swedish symphonic metal act Therion. The album was released in September 2010 by Nuclear Blast Records.

The music on the album is vocal dominated symphonic metal. The backbone of the music is mid- to slow paced heavy metal but it´s the operatic and semi-operatic female and male vocals that completely dominate the music. The songs are epic and almost cinematic at times. Sometimes I´m reminded of a grand musical ( broadway) production. The images are the only thing missing. I´m well entertained throughout the playing time of the album as I´m treated to well thought out compositions, excellent musicianship and a professional production. As far as the "metal" part of the album goes, I miss a bit of bite and recognisable riffs, but the intriguing melody lines and vocal performances make up for some of that.

I haven´t listened to much Therion since "Theli (1996)", but I understand they´ve played this style of vocal dominated symphonic metal pretty much since then. With that in mind I can´t put "Sitra Ahra" into a context discography wise, but viewed upon on its own merits this is a really good album to my ears. A 3.5 star rating is fully deserved.

adg211288 Stand Up and Fight is the third full-length album by the Finnish symphonic folk metal band Turisas, released in 2011, four years after their previous offering, the highly regarded The Varangian Way. Sound wise at first listen it would seem that not much has changed within Turisas since the last album, delivering more of the same. That would be just fine, since more of the same is very highly appreciated as far as this band is concerned! However on further listens back to back with The Varangian Way is becomes apparent that prominently Stand Up And Fight is much more of a symphonic metal album than a folk metal album. It is true that Turisas has always delivered folk metal in a highly symphonic way, but here it is to the point that some parts of Stand Up and Fight have a Rhapsody of Fire like quality to them, which results in a metal album of really epic proportions. It still has folk in it, by this time symphonic influence has come to the fore.

Opening the album is The March Of The Varangian Guard. An instant highlight of the album, it’s quickly apparent that Stand Up and Fight is the work of a band at the top of their game and the reprise of the chorus of To Holmgard and Beyond, a song from The Varangian Way, as the bridge of the song is sure to bring smiles to the faces of fans of the previous album, even if it is delivered in spoken word rather than sung this time around. Other than this the album is full of excellent tracks and the quality never takes a dive throughout the albums nine track duration. There are of course more true highlights, not least of these is the album’s title track, which has lyrics that are highly addictive and inspire me to listen to the track many many times. The true gem of the album however has to be the album’s longest track, End Of An Empire, which is where the band get so symphonic and epic than acts such as Rhapsody of Fire ought to be taking notes. Musically epic, the song also has a prominent progressive quality to it, you can hear that there’s a lot going on in this track. Vocalist Mathias Nygård delivers some truly exceptional vocals here that really fit the mood.

Nygård really delivers vocally throughout the album though. Like on The Varangian Way he varies his vocals between cleans and some harsher screams, though these are used sparingly and tastefully throughout. A good thing, because his cleans are really epic and suit Turisas’ music the best but when his screams arrive they really cause some punch in the air moments.

Other really great songs include Hunting Pirates (I can’t help think of Turisas in all their Viking glory chasing down Alestorm in some sort of sea bound chase when listening to this song, though mainly because off the title) and The Great Escape. I think that the only track that doesn’t capture me as much as the rest of the album is its closer, The Bosphorus Freezes Over. Maybe it’s because it has to keep me interested straight away after the epic piece that was End of an Empire but it’s also because the majority of the vocal is spoken word and when it isn’t its choir vocals instead and while the choir vocals work very well throughout the majority of Stand Up and Fight, here they don’t quite do it for me. I enjoy the track to a point, and it uses symphonic elements really well to close the album in a nice epic fashion, but it’s a mid-paced affair that seems almost out of place at times and is the only reason I can’t give the album a perfect score.

Overall though I’m very highly impressed by Stand Up and Fight. It’s actually the first album from Turisas that has really caught my attention but it’s firmly placed the band in high regard with me and I certainly won’t be overlooking them again. A highly recommended album for fans of folk and symphonic metal alike.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)

adg211288 The Unforgiving is the fifth album from Dutch Symphonic Metal band Within Temptation, and dare I say it’s something of a long-awaited album since the band’s previous effort The Heart of Everything came out back in 2007. That said, I think Within Temptation fans (like myself) are used to large gaps between their albums, as The Unforgiving is actually only the fifth album in a career that started as far back as 1996. Though the lack out regular output may be seen as a disappointment from one point of view, it does at least come with the bonus that every time Within Temptation does drop a new album, it doesn’t sound like the last one made over again, something that is perhaps especially true of The Unforgiving which features some of their biggest changes in sound since the band dropped use the use of death growls from the Mother Earth album onwards. To close off this opening I’m a self-confessed WT fanboy, and this will very likely be the longest review I write in 2011, so I advise grabbing yourself a cup a tea before progressing.

For starters, although The Unforgiving can still be considered as such, it is much less focused on the symphonic metal elements that were very prominent in past albums, particularly the period between Mother Earth and The Heart of Everything (which, admittedly, is most of their albums). They’re still there in the sound but the leading direction here seems to be to make songs with more of a rock or metal edge, featuring some of their heaviest riffs since their early Gothic/Doom work and with the most focus on lead guitar than ever before the overall sound at times doesn’t sound too far off from that found in traditional heavy metal bands, albeit with that distinctive layer of keyboards courtesy of Martijn Spierenburg. Despite this the album has quite a prominent commercial direction, but I don’t think anyone familiar with Within Temptation really expected anything otherwise, and with The Unforgiving Within Temptation prove that when it comes to rock and metal music, and especially with metal music, that commercial need not be a bad word.

The Unforgiving is also the first concept album Within Temptation has made. To represent this, the first track on the album, Why Not Me, is an introduction featuring a voice over. After this track is over however you can expect the band to deliver song after song and the only time a voice-over is featured again is during the song Iron, and fortunately in that track it actually really adds to the mood of the song – in my opinion it’s a rarity for such a thing to be pulled off.

The Unforgiving’s songs can be broken up into small groups. Although they all have that commercial edge there are some that can be considered more mainstream than others. Unsurprisingly I’m referring to the two songs that band used to promote the album prior to its release, those being in order of appearance, Faster and Where is the Edge. Faster is easily the most commercial track on the album, with a very much of a pop-rock feel to it, but it manages to really work in context of the whole album and I don’t know how they did it, but they managed to make some really commercial sounds into something quite atmospheric. Where is the Edge is more symphonic than some of the other tracks on offer, and is probably the album’s weakest moment overall, but I did still enjoy the track to some degree based on initial impressions, but I came to like it more so after several listens, particularly in context of the whole album. Neither of these tracks is a really good introduce to The Unforgiving though, making them poor early promotional choices from a metal standpoint, as neither really hints at what the album really offers as a whole package. Not my favourites in terms of stand-alone tracks but as a part of the bigger picture, both songs work very well. Sinéad also sounds more commercial lyrically, but the music and deliver makes it a very epic piece that it is pretty much in a class of its own, and overall it’s one of the more unique songs that the band have made.

Another category would be for those heavier tracks. The most obvious of these is Iron. There’s been a bit of hype about this one sounding like Iron Maiden and to be fair the intro riff does to a degree sound like something Iron Maiden could have come up with but as a whole the song is far from Within Temptation trying to be copycats, because it very much has their own stamp on it, but it definitely is one of their most metal orientated songs on the album, and features a solo unlike anything they ever played before, fast and brief, it brings the song up into epic proportions. Another such track is an earlier one, In the Middle of the Night. Not so heavy overall as Iron but the riffs are very much there and the track is very powerful on all counts, from the vocal delivery of singer Sharon den Adel to the song’s very structure, it is certainly one of the finest moments on offer with the album. Later track A Demon’s Fate is also pretty heavy, not as heavy as Iron either, which is about as heavy as the album gets, but the song has a very much metal feel to it, parts even push towards Euro flavoured power metal. In general though although it may sometimes feel as if the riffs are given a background role within a song those riffs are more often than not very metal orientated, particularly in tone if not always in the delivery, even on tracks such as Faster.

Then there are also the ballads. The main ballads here are Fire and Ice, a track which sits nicely between Faster and Iron, and the closing track Stairway to the Skies. Previous albums has tracks such as Somewhere (from The Silent Force) and Forgiven (From The Heart of Everything) but these ballads are a very different affair. While Fire and Ice in particular has many similarities to the aforementioned songs the tracks feel more atmospheric than symphonic, which really works in terms of the story the album is telling. Both ballads feature some excellent piano work and Stairway to the Skies is a great haunting closer for the album. Unlike many of their others ballads this one features some heavier sections.

Finally there are songs that just sound so different to anything the band has delivered before. Iron could also fit in this category but the main song I want to mention here is Murder, which features some quite unusual vocals from Sharon den Adel which coupled with some haunting symphony, make for a quite unique track. Lead guitar is also used to great effect. Also there is Shot in the Dark and Lost, which feature powerful vocals, and in the case of Lost use of acoustic guitars aplenty, even for a solo. There is a general epic feel throughout all these songs as well.

The Unforgiving is, overall, very much a change of pace for Within Temptation. Despite some early concerns on my part when all I had to go by were songs such as Where is the Edge and Faster, the end result is actually nothing short of amazing. The album did need more time to grow on me than most albums take before I felt able to write this review, but in contrast to Within Temptation’s previous album The Heart of Everything my initial impressions of it were much higher, but where The Heart of Everything grew on me pretty quick The Unforgiving has taken more time but the wait has been worth it and I now find myself able to play the album right through consecutively without getting the slightest bit bored (I’ve actually just given it three consecutive spins as I finalise this review!). Because of the commercial aspect of the music I’m not exactly confident that the more elite of a metal crowd will enjoy the album but anyone who enjoyed the band’s previous output or is open-minded to music in general is recommended to check out The Unforgiving. I for one cannot find fault in it. It also sounds fresh, like the work of a band rejuvenated – even though as far as I’m concerned they didn’t need it, Within Temptation has never disappointed me in the past with their albums, always consistently producing some of the best albums their genre has to offer and The Unforgiving is no exception, in fact it is easily their best and most exciting work to date.

There is also a special edition of the album that comes with a DVD. Currently I haven’t delved into this part of the package yet so watch this space for an update on the bonus content. As always though, the score given is representative of the standard package.

(Review originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)

bonnek Before they started a blooming business in cloning themselves, Therion made quite an interesting appearance on the extensive 90's metal scene. With Theli, Therion reached the end of their progression from a Celtic Frost replica into a highly influential blend of Celtic Frost's pioneering theatrical tendencies with an equal amount of Metallica thrash metal and Sisters of Mercy gothic rock.

Therion will probably not charm you much if you expect great musicianship, both the riffing and the song writing is fairly straightforward. But it is applied to maximum effect: they don’t repeat too much here, change tempo and melodies frequently enough and had plenty of ideas to keep your attention to the proceedings. Both the inspiration and the passion for what they were doing ran high in those days. The element that could make them appealing to progressive rock audiences is the addition of Beethoven-era classical influences and symphonic choruses. Celtic Frost pioneered this in metal but Therion apply it very effectively.

As happened with every remarkable heavy metal album from the 90's, also this one sprouted a multitude of look-alikes that would ape the style and clutter the metal scene for years to come. Nightwish, Within Temptation, After Forever and Therion themselves would turn this exciting approach into a commercially successful but artistically deficient self-parody. Before it got so far, Therion made this essential piece of music.

bonnek Therion had one more great work in them before they turned into a metal muzak producing unit, While Theli marked the end of their creative progression, Vovin is a solid confirmation of their quality standards. Even though the music is very straightforward, the huge symphonic arrangements, operatic voices and pleasant melodies could easily win over many prog-heads.

While every song is most pleasant, the continuous slow place and generic approach bogs down the effect somewhat. The Wild Hunt is the only up-tempo track that stirs things up a bit. Another weakness is that it is really too sweet and smooth all the way through. It's sure done tastefully, neither kitschy nor excessive (which is quite an achievement in this style), but sometimes I'd really like to kick their butt hoping they would put a bit more adventure in their work.

Therion used to be a unique and ground-breaking metal act in the 90's. Vovin easily proves that. But I used to be more overwhelmed by it at the time it came out. Since then it hasn't survived repeated critical listens all that well, I only play it occasionally now.

bonnek I had ignored this album as I found Therion were gradually losing their originality and creativity. I had really enjoyed Theli and Vovin but a number of reasons had made me do big detours around anything called Therion from 1999 onwards: the repetitive approach of Vovin, the stop-gap called The Crowning of Atlantis and the assembly line products Lemuria/Sirius B.

As I had expected, there's nothing on offer that we haven't heard on other Therion albums, but the crunchy guitar work from new axe man Kristian Niemann is good improvement. His galloping NWOBHM riffs kick Therion out of its imminent lethargic state. In fact, due to its energy boost, this album sounds more like a follow up for Theli then Vovin did. The songs have a lot more metal punch in them and there's more variation.

Next to the guitarist, also the choir and orchestra are a real treat and generally, Therion sound like a band having lots of fun at what they are doing again. The opener Seven Secrets is the best song on the album and serves as an excellent example: crisp guitars, big choir arrangements and good melodies. Eternal Return goes for a more gentle approach, a bit musical-alike at times but with occasional up-tempo parts that seem to come straight out of Iron Maiden and Rainbow albums.

Enter Vril-Ya is a classic hard rock stomp. As usual with Therion, they know how to make the most out of a simple idea. The choir is really excellent here, dark and menacing. In fact, as the closing track of the album proves, it all seems to come right out of the Carmina Burana: songs about drinking, lust, gluttony and similar types of medieval fun.

The quality goes a bit up and down. Some songs like Ships of Luna and The Invincible rely too heavily on the effect made by the overwhelming arrangements and big choirs , probably in order to hide that the songwriting isn’t all that impressive really. Still, there are good moments, like Deggial that saves itself from anonymity by a good tempo change at the end.

The short Lord of Flies is a little energetic piece and one of the highpoints. With Flesh of the Gods they put in a stab of shameless hairmetal that is simply irresistible. The fun they had with this one is no less than contagious. Via Nocturna is a typical Therion track that I've simply heard too much by now. They handled the Orff cover O Fortuna with their usual good judgement, not too bombastic (a relative thing), with just some celestial rock drums accompanying the choir and orchestra. Works for me.

From this album onwards things declined rapidly for Therion. The following albums might still appeal to die-hard fans or to people not familiar with Therion, but for anyone else they’re unnecessary. The conclusion stands that Therion stopped evolving after Vovin, but with Deggial they at least added a nice selection of songs to their canon. Not their best but a good album nevertheless and not a bad start for Therion newbies.

bonnek With the turn of the millennium, Therion changed from an inventive and creative force into a stale opera-metal merchandising unit, tossing out double albums crammed with formulaic song writing that may have boosted them to the top of the metal charts but also to the bottom of my ‘exciting music’ list.

The only thing they prove for me is their inability to come up with anything new and inspired. Most of the 4 minute songs here wear thin by the time they get halfway; the few exceptions that you might live through are sure to bore you to death after 3 listens. The song writing is really poor, sticking to unimaginative hard rock and metal riffs that have been around for 35 years.

Therion aren’t capable to come up with anything interesting anymore. Every note on this album has been played before, either by other bands, or by Therion themselves, as they do not shy away from self-plagiarism. This album sounds completely uninvolved. It’s sterile, polished, monotonous, dull and flat, operatic metal at its most cliched and hollow impersonation.

The only reason I’ve been able to churn out two stars is the opening tracks Typhon and Uthark Runa which still offer a hint of what Therion used to be.

bonnek This album forms a kind of double album with Lemuria but it was released seperately and from both releases this one is the worst by far. Where Lemuria still started out fine, Sirius B does not have one song that rises above the abject mediocrity of all other opera-metal and gothic metal acts that were around in the first decade of the 21st century.

Next to repetitive metal riffs of Lemuria, this album also features some of the most formulaic goth clichés you can imagine. I don’t want to go through all songs, but the tepid hard rock and empty pathos of Blood of Kingu gets on my nerves in less then a minute. The opening bars from Son of the Sun are even worse. This Sisters of Mercy-nicked riff has been heard on hundred other songs already. It’s an insult to any music lover: stealing something that has been stolen and used and re-used hundreds times before, all that while assuming we’ll be too numb to notice.

The rest of the songs are so tedious and unremarkable that I get lulled to sleep before they are over. For me the worst Therion I've heard.

Time Signature Last of the lords of cheese...

Genre: symphonic metal

Symphonic metal can be very good, I think, if the symphonic elements contribute something to the music. I think that Dimmu Borgir and The Bridal Procession utilize symphonic elements very efficiently on "Abrahadabra" and "Astronomical Dimensions" respectively. However, if the symphonic elements do not really add anything interesting to the music, we often end up with pretentious and very cheesy dredge.

I think that Battlelore's "Doombound" falls under the latter category. The rock/metal aspect of the music on this album is not bad - it is very much standard modern metal which draws on power metal, melodeath and gothic metal. But I do not think that the use of keyboards and symphonic elements add anything. It is almost like these elements are just there to be there. They do not even make the music sound epic or anything.

The vocals are horrible. The female vocals are weak and boring and totally uninteresting and do not belong in rock music at all. The male vocals are just annoying, and regardless if they're growled, yelled, screamed or sung in a rough rock music fashion, they just come off as sounding stupid.

Hardcore fans of symphonic metal might enjoy this album. Personally, I think it fails. It shows that keyboards, symphonic instrumentation, and female vocals in themselves do not make for good symphonic metal.

metalmarketing Review written by Nathan Scott, freelance journalist.

Originally published at http://bit.ly/eHs4uv

So, I received a pleasant surprise in the mail yesterday – sitting in my letterbox was the upcoming album from Dutch Rock legends Within Temptation. Thus, without further ado…

The new Within Temptation album opens with an eerie 34 second voice clip entitled “Why Not Me?” – coincidentally also used in the short movie bundled with the “Faster” single – which really helps set the mood and focus the mind for the story which follows.

“Shot In The Dark” begins on misleadingly quiet territory, lulling you into calm and gently leading you on. “I’ve been left out alone like a damn criminal” starts Sharon, before quickly leading into a chorus which packs one hell of a punch, bleating out “your soul is on fire, a shot in the dark – where did they aim for when they missed your heart?” which you’ll be singing long after the song is over.

“In The Middle Of The Night” comes up next, beginning with guitars blazing and Sharon’s haunting voice echoing ‘I don’t care if I’m playing with fire, I’m aware that I’m frozen inside’. This is definitely one of the strongest songs on the album, both musically and from a production perspective.

“Faster” is the first nominated single from the album, and offers a good example of the new direction that Within Temptation have gone in for their first concept album. Powerful vocals and a catchy chorus make for an impressive rock anthem, a wise choice!

“Fire And Ice” slows down the pace, and is the first ballad on the album. The highlight of this song definitely lies in the power and capacity of Sharon’s voice – ‘where’s the love we once had, is it all a lie?’ haunts the first verse, before the tempo picks up for the second with strong orchestral elements and a steady bass line.

If “Fire and Ice” slowed down the pace a bit too much for your liking, “Iron” brutally forces it right back up again! A symphonic introduction with heavy, fast paced guitars precedes Sharon belting out ‘you cant live without the fire, it’s the heat that makes you strong’ in yet another catchy chorus.

In what is a good choice for just past the halfway mark, “Where Is The Edge” is a medium paced showcase of talent in a specific Within Temptation style – albeit in a slightly predictable manner.

“Sinead” will be the 2nd single released from the album, and is as far away from “Faster” as it’s possible to get. ‘Now I’m crossing the border, sealing my fate, I’m not afraid’ – definitely an accurate description of what Within Temptation demonstrates with this track. Lyrically mainstream but musically epic, this is the defining song to showcase their breakaway from albums of old.

The slow tempo of ‘Lost’ perhaps contrasts with the rest of the album. Acoustic guitars compliment Sharon’s vocals at the start, with striking range and lyrics which will leave you pondering – right before you’re brutally overwhelmed with the sudden kick of a full blown orchestra directly after the chorus.

“A Demon’s Fate” has the most interesting start of any of the songs on the album, and would sound more in place on a pop-rock record from the 80s. With less orchestra breaks than usual, it could be considered an easygoing song that is guaranteed to appeal to a wide range of musical taste.

As you’d expect from a song with such a title, “Murder” uses dark and theatrical structures in order to transport the listener into a world, which could resemble an Edgar Allan Poe-esque scenario. Certainly unique, this is one song which is hard not to listen to again, simply to see if you missed anything the first time.

The album concludes with a ballad called “Stairway To The Skies”, led by a piano based start accompanied by the combined efforts of a few violinists, joined one last time by the haunting vocal talents of Sharon. Making use of such lines as ‘My Angel is coming down from heaven to take me’, we can only hope that these particular Angels will grace us with their music for many years to come.

9.5/10 – Whilst its certainly a change in pace and direction for a well established band, its nonetheless one of the best albums I’ve had the pleasure of listening to in a long time. Less emphasis on choirs, more emphasis on rock’n'roll, this marks a turning point in the long standing career of Within Temptation – for the good.

- Nathan Scott (nathan.scott@chatcore.net) - http://metalmarketing.wordpress.com

adg211288 Doombound is the sixth full length album from this Finnish metal band, released in 2011. Musically Doombound is typical Battlelore, but in general it has quite a different feel to it than their previous album The Last Alliance, it’s not as fast paced an album, but in other respects it follows pretty much the same formula, with male vocalist Tomi Mykkänen continuing to use clean vocals along with his growls, making the music sound more in the vein of the group’s first two albums which featured his predecessor Patrik Mennander. The musical approach may be predictable, without bringing many new ideas to the Battlelore table, but it does retain the group’s unique symphonic metal sound, which while typically lumped into the same genre, in no way sounds like some of the top names from the genre such as Within Temptation or Nightwish. The sound here is more guitar driven, making it heavier than most symphonic metal typically is. There is also the odd moment where a melody may have a very minimal folk feel to it, and while it’s not as evident on Doombound, some of the band’s music reaches into more extreme territories (you can hear some of this on the bonus DVD). In short symphonic metal probably isn’t an accurate tag to give them because the band is pretty unique, which is why this lengthy introduction was required so that people unfamiliar with them don’t ignore the album/band based on the tag. And so let’s get this review going proper.

While Battlelore have always written lyrics based on the works of Tolkien, Doombound is actually the first album in their career to be an actual concept album, about character Túrin Turambar. Strangely for a concept album they actually features a song written in their native Finnish, a first for Battlelore. This track, Kärmessurma, is easily one of Doombound’s highlights.

While as an album Doombound has its moments, I must say that after the strength of The Last Alliance this is a bit a disappointment. It’s a good solid release, very solid in fact, but I was hoping for the best Battlelore offering to date with this album since they seemed to be really hitting their stride with The Last Alliance – this feels like something of a step backwards overall, at least in terms of the impact the album has on me. There are actually a lot of good ideas going on in the music throughout Doombound, and they’re not disjointed ideas either, and the performance of the musicians is top notch, but in my opinion there’s just something undefined missing from Doombound that holds it back from the real high end of a scoring system.

Like much of Battlelore’s material, Doombound took a few listens to really appreciate. Though I am still disappointed by it even now that I have got myself familiar with its songs, when I first listened to the album it actually came across as more of a bitter disappointment, since parts of it actually bored me. It’s definitely a grower though, and now after several listens I really like it. I think it must be mentioned that as a concept album the music is designed to tell me of a story than any of the band’s previous Tolkien themed works, and taking that into deeper consideration, this album works very well. Those initial impressions of the album lacking something really special haven’t gone away, but I wouldn’t consider this a major letdown in their career. To make my feelings known in short, I’m only disappointed by this release because The Last Alliance was so good that I expected much more from Doombound, it is in no way a bad album and I expect that the fans, like myself, will find it a worthy addition to the Battlelore discography.

Highlights from the album are opener Bloodstained, with which I note that male vocalist Tomi Mykkänen vocals are pretty varied, ranging from his trademark growl, cleans, and something that sits in between the two. Iron of Death which follows is another great track, as is Last of the Lords, which features some guest guitarist from Dan Swanö (Edge of Sanity, Star One et all). The Finnish track Kärmessurma as mentioned above is another great piece and features one of Kaisa Jouhki’s best vocal performances on the album. Fate of the Betrayed and the title track, which is an eight minute piece, are also pretty strong pieces. The title track is a pretty varied affair, and Kaisa’s vocals on the light sections are really beautiful. In fact there isn’t really a bad track on here one the sound of the album has had time to grow. It comes down to missing that special something again.

Overall this is a very strong album though, and it’s definitely not the worst thing Battlelore have ever made. It may not have the same impact as The Last Alliance did but what it does showcase is a lot of good ideas, especially in the atmospheric sounds of Maria Honkanen’s keyboards, which at times really make the songs on Doombound really great instead of just good. And these ideas are still heading in the right direction overall (as opposed to their 2007 offering Evernight, at which point I thought the band was running out of ideas despite a few really great tracks) and I’m confident that Doombound will be well received by established fans of Battlelore, though I will recommend several listens before passing judgement. I’m not sure that it will win them any new fans over though, so if you’re reading this and are unfamiliar with the band, I’d recommend starting with either The Last Alliance or their debut Where the Shadows Lie instead.

There also exists a special edition of Doombound which comes with a DVD which is packed with enough additional material to make Doombound much more of an essential purchase for fans of the band. There’s two features of live music, neither is very long but combined we get a total of eleven live tracks, which is actually more music on offer than on the group’s stand alone DVD release, The Journey and no track appears in both performances. There’s a nice selection from all five prior studio albums here, and it’s pretty interesting to hear some variation in the vocal parts of some of the songs, and also surprising to see Kaisa joining in with some of growled vocals on Raging Goblin, which I would consider to be Battlelore’s heaviest track. What makes this more surprising is that she actually did some growls in Storm of the Blades from Third Age of the Sun, which can be heard in the music video for the song which is included on this DVD, but on the live performance of the song Tomi does these growls.

To top the amount of live material off the band has also included all four of the music videos that they have made up until this point (Journey to Undying Lands, Storm of the Blades, House of Heroes and Third Immortal). No promo video for anything from Doombound though. There are also two tour videos and four photo galleries that are set to music. In short this is an unexpectedly huge DVD package from Battlelore. The album overall is good but a disappointment. This is not. However I am going to have to rate the album based on its standard content alone, but special/limited edition extras.

Pelata O Gods of Metal, I humbly bow and beg for thy forgiveness. I have been ignorant too long. I had heard thy decree that After Forever was indeed amazing and blessed by thee, but I ignored thy voices. Forgive me, O spiked and studded ones. Forgive me, for as thou hast said, After Forever is the ultimate reigning ruler of the Operatic Metal Realms.

Floor Jensen is most fully blessed by thy hands, as her voice is the uttermost superior of any so-called ‘opera’ singers within thy gates. Her majestic, rich, soulful strains utterly demolish any other singers in her most worthy path. The mighty warriors you have placed at her side certainly bear your mark and seal and regal kings within their appointed dominions. Their newest offering Invisible Circles is truly and unequivocally your Metallic Will for all within the Operatic Metal Realms to bear witness to and allow to saturate their aural senses. Send forth ‘Digital Deceit’, ‘Blind Pain’, & ‘Beautiful Emptiness’ into their very souls and engulf them in thy Blinding Glory! Forgive, O Metal Ones, do not smite me! In return, I vow to tell all who will listen about thy servant After Forever. I will expel my dying breath declaring their superiority and ultimate, everlasting’.uh’kick-ass-ness to the masses.

Hear me, O minions of the Operatic Metal Realms! Deny your false idols and worship the Gods of Metal at the altar of After Forever!

Pelata Female-fronted Epic Power Metal…this description alone should be enough to inform you if you’re interested in going any further. Still with me? Ok, then. Edenbridge is what I call a “Genre Band” (I need to copyright that). If you’re into the specific genre to which they belong, then no arguable reason can be found for you to not like them. In this case, they fall into the well worn grooves that Nightwish carved out before them and do a very good job and presenting all the elements the genre is known for. The music has all the grandiose trappings and epic melodies one would expect. The vocals, provided by one Ms. Sabine Edelsbacher, are smooth & melodic. They attempt, with varying degrees of success, to invoke passion & drama into the songs. Yes sir, it’s all there…except for the fire.

Where’s the fire? The first 4 tracks, including the 65 second “intro” track (I wish bands would stop doing this), pass by barely noticeable. The tempos, riffs & performances are so mundane & standard that they leave no impression. The first signs of life are with the track “Adamantine”, and even then it drops off at around the 36 second mark. The thing I believe to be keeping the music from truly crossing the border into being energetic is the vocal performance. Sabine is no doubt a competent vocalist. Her delivery, on the other hand, is a bit subdued. It sounds as if she’s not getting “up under it”, as I like to put it. She’s singing it, but she’s not feeling it. Imagine, if you will, Anneke from The Gathering singing for Nightwish. Anneke is a fantastic vocalist, but over faster, more metallic riffs she’d sound out of place. So it is with Sabine. The first track where she sounds as though she fits is “Whale Rider”, a slow, piano driven ballad. Her excellent performance, however, can’t save the track from sounding like it came from an animated movie.

The remainder of the album is loaded with more of the same, so there’s really no need to continue track by track. My Earth Dream is not a bad record, by any means. But, strong musicianship aside, I can’t sincerely call it good either. It simply lay’s there, doing precious little to grab someone’s attention, hoping desperately that someone, anyone, will stop long enough to give it a chance.

The Block To Mega Therion

I picked this one up at my local record store for $0.99 because I thought I recognized the name of the band. And, for $0.99 how could I go wrong? At first I was a little disappointed wit hit because I wasn’t big into symphonic metal. But after a few listens I grew to enjoy the album very much.

One of the best parts of this album are the vocalists. I like how Therion included the choirs since it adds a real nice tough to the tracks. The harmonies that the choirs offer are really cool, too. I prefer the choirs, actually, more than the voice of the main vocalist, Christofer Johnsson. Especially on the track “To Mega Therion” where Christofer Johnsson just fells like he’s straining to get the vocals out of his throat. But, on the other hand, the choirs always seem to fir in well with the band. Christofer Johnsson’s style also reminds me a little of modern Mastodon’s. Another thing that I didn’t know about when I bought this album was that Dan Swanö was featured on “Cults of the Shadow” and “Nightside of Eden”. Liking Swanö as much as I do, those two songs mad me enjoy this album even more.

“Cults of the Shadow” might just be my favorite song on the album. It starts off with a cool bas and keyboard rhythm which carries over into the wicked vocals of Dan Swanö. Throughout the track the guitars and drums are very solid. Near the end of the song, The North German Radio Choir takes up the same bass and keyboard riff that started the song, except they sing it, not play it.

Overall this is a very solid album by Therion. The instrumental sections are great, along with great guest vocalists; Dan Swanö, The North German Radio Choir, and The Siren. The only thing I can find wrong with this album is that the guest singers are better than those that the band has to offer. One other thing is that most of the songs sound similar. This may be because the choirs all sound the same, but nonetheless this is an album well worth picking up. Therion gets 3.5 stars for one of their first symphonic metal albums.

adg211288 I find that music DVD’s can be a hit or miss thing’s with fans but this one is a definite hit. If you haven’t had the chance to see Within Temptation live then this DVD captures them at their flawless best; perfect renditions of many of their best songs, spanning all four studio releases that they had at the time, great stage sets and special guests. I’ve actually seen the band while they promoted the album that they released in 2007, The Heart of Everything and in that show they mainly only played songs from said album and The Silent Force, throwing in a couple of fan favourites from Mother Earth, so The Silent Force Tour DVD makes for a great chance to see early classics such as Candles and The Other Half (of me) performed.

Clearly the band have spared no expense to make their show one to rival that of band’s said to be the some of the greatest live performers of modern times. We see a torch light procession for Candles, huge blow up creeper things to represent the power of nature during Mother Earth and lead singer Sharon den Adel suspended above the stage in a cage for Caged. Some band’s will go out of stage and just play but not Within Temptation. This is not just music, this is a show.

But first and foremost in importance is the music. Within Temptation play without fault and Sharon den Adel never misses a single note. We even get to hear the vocals of guitarist Robert Westerholt on a couple of songs, giving fans who may have only heard The Silent Force or The Heart of Everything a chance to hear Within Temptation’s earlier ‘beauty and the beast’ style of vocal delivery. Song highlights are Deceiver of Fools, Angels, Caged, Mother Earth, Candles, The Other Half (of me), Jane Doe and It’s the Fear.

Extras wise there is three music videos for the singles that came from The Silent Force (Stand My Ground, Angels, Memories) and two shorter live appearances on the first of the two discs. The extra live shows only have songs that appear in the main show and one is the same songs as the three music videos but it’s the main concert that you should be buying this for. If you’re like me you won’t be bother by that fact after you’ve watched the main show.

On the second disc you’ll find backstage footage from various places; making of documentaries for The Silent Force album and the three music videos; some interviews; a photo gallery and a bloopers/credits section. It’s not stuff that you’d probably watch more than once but I’m giving this DVD it’s rating based on the main feature. All this extra stuff is just a bonus next to that. That in itself I feel is justification for the 100% score I’m giving this DVD. If you like this band, what are you waiting for? Go buy it.

(Review originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)

adg211288 What Lies Beneath is Tarja’s third album, but only her second metal album. Released in 2010 this album easily gets the biggest surprise of the year award for me. Having bought her previous effort, 2007’s My Winter Storm around the time it first came out and finding myself on the Nightwish (Tarja’s former band, just in case you’re reading this unaware) side of the split. It’s about three years later at the time of writing this review for its follow up, and it’s take me this long to really appreciate the previous effort, which even now I’d still consider very far from a masterpiece. So when bits and pieces of this following started getting released I was quite surprised. The material here is of such a superior quality to My Winter Storm and when I say superior I really mean it, because with What Lies Beneath Tarja has delivered an album that is really up there with some of the best albums of the genre, including those of her former band Nightwish, and has singlehandedly managed to make me prefer Tarja’s solo career to post-Tarja Nightwish, when previously I was generally of the opinion that she’d never be part of another truly great album.

The music is much heavier than what was on My Winter Storm and it’s also more to the point, there are no intro or transition tracks on the album, not even as an opener. This is a good thing, all those intros that were practically musically joined to the next songs on the previous album were really annoying to me and What Lies Beneath is a much better and accessible album for doing away with this practice. The music is also generally much more focused on being metal than classical pieces. There’s also a bit of a progressive flair in some of these songs such as opener Anteroom of Death and Dark Star, which was pretty unexpected. Anteroom of Death could even be consider somewhat avant-garde, it has some general weirdness that could be associated with the style, especially in the bridge where a cappella metallers Van Canto pop up for a guest appearance. Dark Star also features a guest appearance, this time from All That Remains vocalist Phil Labonte, providing some guest vocals, including a few growls, though these aren’t exactly prominent in the performance. While less experimental than Anteroom of Death and featuring a chorus laden with lyrical hooks, this one nevertheless is leaning towards that sound.

This is not to say that Tarja hasn’t included some more commercially orientated songs, she has, but in their own way they’re just as good as those experimental pieces like Anteroom of Death. They’re not all classical ballads either, they’re still heavy even if they’re designed to show off Tarja’s vocal ability and when riffs are prominent they’re very good. Until My Last Breath is the first of these songs, and what’s most of note here as the second track is how different it is to Anteroom of Death. Tarja’s vocals here are excellent and a nice guitar solo is thrown in for good measure. Third track I feel Immortal is another song which fits into this sort of category but this one mixes a heavy chorus with some atmospheric piano for the verses. While it can be seen as commercially orientated metal there is a great and epic atmosphere to it which is what sets it apart from songs with a similar intent by other artists. Later track Underneath is a more balladry type song, but is every bit as good in its own way, and the same goes for Rivers of Lust. What’s most of note at these more standard songs is that they have a great atmosphere which wasn’t really evident on My Winter Storm.

In For a Kill is quite a frantic sounding song, very guitar driven. Some have described this song as like something that would be the theme to a James Bond theme, and right down to the delivery of it and the name I have to say they’re are right to say that. Again vocals are superb and the song has a different feel to what’s been offered already, so we know already that What Lies beneath is no one track pony as is proved yet again with Little Lies, which begins with this little rhythm pattern that sounds like the build up to a shark attack in a film or something, which then kicks into some of the heaviest riffs on the album. Despite the hooks in the chorus this song doesn’t actually come across as overly commercial. Some of the riffs here don’t sound that far off to some stuff I’ve heard from groove metal bands.

Falling Awake deserves a special mention of its own as the lead single from the album, and may end up being the song that gets checked out by new listeners the most due to the presence of famed guitarist Joe Satriani guesting on it to provide some of his trademark lead guitar work. While not the most experimental song on the album it is nevertheless a surprising choice for the lead single given that this is actually no commercially inclined ballad like I Feel Immortal, it’s very much a metal song and it is one that can really get you going, especially when Joe kicks in. His leads are epic and really add to the atmosphere of the song, especially in the drawn out outro section. Great stuff.

The Archive of Lost Dreams is another ballad, and is the only song on the album to be completely composed by Tarja and is one of the most classically orientated pieces on the album. I can’t say it’s a particular favourite of mine but it does fit very well in with what the rest of the album offers. After this we’re just left with the last and longest track – Crimson Deep. Starting off with some bass guitar it quickly moves into some heavy riffs which sound almost doom metal at times, and perhaps would be if played slightly slower. It then turns the tone down a notch for the verse which features some haunting piano work. The guitars come back in pretty quick though in the build up to the chorus. Yet again there’s something a different feel to this song. At about four and a half minutes in everything else pulls back for a piano/acoustic guitar section which gradually builds up with some symphonies and then it gets heavy again in such a way that it may make you think if this is really a Tarja album, because it’s so completely unlike anything she has put her name to before. It’s far from generic and its very far from what she was doing with Nightwish. No, it’s much better than that. No one saw this coming, but Tarja just put out one of the best of 2010.

There also exists a deluxe edition with three bonus songs, two originals and a cover. I’ll talk about the originals first. The first of these is We Are, which starts off with some light music which lasts through the first verse until kicking into some heavy guitar riffs for the chorus. I love the chorus is this one, its pretty additive. After the second of these the songs takes one of those unexpected turns and goes all weird on us to the point of leaning towards the avant-garde again. The second original bonus track is Naiad, which is a more of a classical piece yet as times, while not metal doesn’t strange classical at all, still experimental and just well, different is probably the best word to use here. It’s also the best such piece (as in light non-metal songs) out of the whole package. Like Crimson Deep it’s another long track (both clock in at over seven minutes). These two shouldn’t really be bonus tracks as they’re every bit as great as what Tarja’s put on the main album, better than some even, which is why I’d recommend picking up the deluxe edition of the album over the regular, it’s worth it just for these two songs.

The cover is Still of the Night, originally by Whitesnake. My Winter Storm has a cover of Alice Cooper’s Poison and this is What Lies Beneath’s equivalent to that, except this time the right thing has been done by putting the classic rock cover as a bonus track since this way it doesn’t sound out of place even if it does still sound slightly ridiculous to hear Tarja doing a song of this style, which is far from that of her usual style, even in this very varied release. Enjoyable nonetheless.

(Review originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)

adg211288 Fact: Epica is progressive metal. Okay, so they’re more instantly recognisable for their symphonic elements and admittedly that is their primary genre, but there’s no denying that Epica are a class above the run-of-the-mill symphonic metal act, and this is why, and it especially shows on this, their 2009 album Design Your Universe.

This album gives me a bit of a dilemma however, and that’s because I was already a big fan of Epica before this album came out, and I consider its processor The Divine Conspiracy to be an album worth a perfect score, so what do I do when from every possible angle the band manages to better it with this follow up?

I guess the only thing to do is to explain why and settle for giving it an identical score seeing as it would be unfair to The Divine Conspiracy to lower my rating of it just for perspectives.

Continuing the trend that the Epica albums have always follows, Design Your Universe begins with an intro track, Samadhi, which like the band’s other intros before it is a classical piece. It’s good for what it is, which is a build up for the first proper song that the band’s going to give us, called Resign to Surrender, which is flows easily into and is an example of an intro track done right, since it doesn’t become integral listening for the song it leads into as some intros do. It doesn’t make the listen lose anything by not playing it, although it is very worth it.

Resign to Surrender is the first song from the album to be a continuation of Mark Jansen’s A New Age Dawns saga, which the band began on their 2005 album Consign to Oblivion, this being the fourth part of it overall. Jansen leads the song with his harsh vocals, backed by the Epica choir with female vocalist Simone Simons handling the chorus and bridge sections of the track, up until this point it follows a fairly basic structure but this is where Epica take it up a level with some nice lead guitar backed by symphony, it lulls the listener into thinking it’s going straight back to where it started by throwing the main riff out again but it doesn’t, allowing the song to continue to progress with some beautiful vocals from Simons. There are also some spoken words from drummer Ariën Van Weesenbeek in this song, and unlike some songs I’ve heard they don’t sound out of place. This is a highlight of the album and it is the perfect choice for the first song (the intro doesn’t count) as it lets the listener know just what Epica are about, showcasing their key elements such as both vocalists (and both on very top form on this and throughout the album I might add), their well constructed songs, heavy guitars and lush symphonies.

It is also a good move on their part to line-up the album’s lead single Unleashed next because it shows another side of Epica. If Resign to Surrender is to be taken as them at their most extreme (and believe me as far as band’s of their style go, Epica could actually be considered extreme symphonic metal), then Unleashed should be taken as their middle ground, still heavy, but lacking Jansen’s growl. This obviously makes the song more commercially appealing to the casual listener, but not in such as way as some of Epica’s other songs that were chosen for singles. Yes it’s a good choice for a single, but it should sit a bit better with those who will rate down single material as being too commercial. That would be unjust here, this is a prime example of symphonic metal at its finniest and Simone really shines when she takes her vocals up a notch near the end into those real operatic tones. She soon does this again a couple of tracks down the line with Our Destiny. Though this one does feature Jansen’s growl as well, it too could be consider part of the middle ground Epica sound due to its slower tempo and lyrically hooks in its chorus, though they take things up a notch just after its halfway point and things start to progress more into Epica’s more extreme side.

Another highlight for me is Martyr of the Free Word, the fourth track on the album. Aside from being a strong song for its writing Simone deliveries some truly mesmerising vocal melodies here which takes it a whole level above good into greatness. Later track Burn to a Cinder has a similar effect.

With Design Your Universe containing an interlude track (The Price of Freedom), it could be said that the album has two halves and it is the final track on the first half, Kingdom of Heaven that really holds the distinction of being both the best the album has to offer and also the band at their most progressive. At thirteen and a half minutes in length and not a second of it wasted, I wouldn’t hesitate to say that it is Epica’s best song to date. From Jansen’s harsh growls to Simone’s operatic voice, the complex guitar riffs, the symphonies, everything here is perfect, especially the drawn out progressive instrumental section which should leave no doubts as to Epica’s status as a progressive metal band. From heavy to symphonic to some beautiful acoustics backed by more symphony, it has everything that I look for in these sort of instrumental sections. It doesn’t have to be all out lead guitar (though they give us some of that a bit later as well), if anything this is much more epic. This is also the next part of A New Age Dawns and like Resign to Surrender features some spoken words. The danger with a song of this sort of length is boredom yet it seems to pass very quickly, and that’s because it’s done right, very right in fact. Okay, so we do hear some parts several times during its duration but they never seem overdone. Perfect in every sense of the word.

After the interlude track the second half of the albums begins. I already mentioned first song Burn to a Cinder in passing above when talking about Martyr of the Free Word. Simone is excellent here and it’s another favourite of mine. While the interlude that precedes may seem a pointless exercise on paper it is actually very important given that the band pretty much just presented the album’s magnum opus, this interlude was needed so we could recover and appreciate one of those middle-ground Epica songs after that dose of progressive extremity.

What I haven’t mentioned in this review so far is the third side to Epica’s music and that is their really light side. Okay so we got some classical stuff on Samadhi and The Price of Freedom which can be considered light but what we’re talking about now is the light side of Epica in the actual context of a song. It’s not a side that the band delve into so often, after all they’re a metal band, but like many other symphonic metal bands they do tend to stray into this territory for a song or two per album and on Design Your Universe Epica have given us Tides of Time and White Waters. The former of this is led by the piano and Simone’s vocals which get really high and operatic in the song’s chorus. It’s beautiful but is admittedly not likely to everyone’s cup of tea, which is why it’s quite fortunate that the whole song is done in this style, as the metal instruments kick in after a couple of choruses. This isn’t exactly the most original formula to use for this sort of song but it is a good example of it. There’s some good lead guitar here as well as Simone’s operatic vocals sound even better after the guitars have started. White Waters is the other light offering on the album. This song features some guest vocals from Tony Kakko of Sonata Arctica. More guitar driven than Tides of Time, it’s a nice little duet and like Tides gets heavier after a certain point. It’s not exactly a gem from the album when its standard is so high but is a nice addition nonetheless and Kakko’s clean vocals give a refreshing change from the usual grunts and accompany Simone and its particularly good when it gets heavier as Kakko is excellent here.

Deconstruct and Semblance of Liberty bring Mark Jansen’s growl back with a vengeance, and with the pair of them sitting between the two light songs they give a welcome break from them. While those light songs are very good what must be remembered is that this is a metal album and most people will be listening to this for the metal content, so following a light song with another light song would not really be a great idea. The flow of an album is very important as well as taking songs as stand-alone pieces and while it could be argued that with only two light songs in thirteen tracks maybe one should have been placed into the first half of the album, the positioning works pretty well as it is. Back to the songs at hand however Deconstruct isn’t actually the band at their heaviest but Semblance of Liberty is right up there with Resign to Surrender as part of the extreme side of Epica.

Finally at the end we come to the title track and the final part of the A New Age Dawns saga that the album is going to offer us. If the saga follows the standard of Jansen’s previous saga of songs, The Embrace That Smothers, there’ll be a further three parts still to come as of this album. This is another long track at nine and a half minutes and like Kingdom of Heaven shows Epica is their extreme and progressive styles. The opening acoustics are atmospheric, the riffs heavy and all in all a great way to close this amazing album. Simone’s vocals are so high here that she pretty much sounds like a choir on her own.

So now that I’ve talked about the songs what can be said it summary of Design Your Universe? Only really that this is an extremely varied album and as good as symphonic metal (or perhaps metal in general) gets. It’s a showcase of how Epica as a band are no one trick pony and that they are very far from being a copycat Nightwish. This is a whole level above what most other bands of this genre are doing and I wouldn’t actually hesitate to recommend Epica, this album especially, to people who may otherwise not like symphonic metal.

So there we have it, Design Your Universe. An album that tops what I already considered a perfect album by this band. This is easily the best that Epica have offered to date and if this last experience is anything to go by I may end up having to eat these words, but I really don’t see how the band can top this one. I already feel that I’m somehow doing this one an injustice by giving it the same score than I did The Divine Conspiracy.

(Review originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)

adg211288 When it was released in 2007, Epica's The Divine Conspiracy was the album that I felt really gave the genre of symphonic metal a good kick up the backside. At a time where I was finding most of the symphonic metal bands I was hearing could be labelled as just another Nightwish clone here I found a band who were anything but. They weren't exactly new having already released two metal albums (as well as a classical album) but this was my introduction to their more progressively inclined and extreme symphonic metal sound. I think that it is essential for fans of the genre, and that it has the potential to make new fans of the genre for the people who never really ‘got it’ before.

The Divine Conspiracy is far more extreme than many symphonic metal albums, employing the use of both an operatic female singer (Simone Simons) and a death grunter (Mark Jansen). While other bands may employ this setup, Epica perfect it. Simone has a beautiful, strong voice which has an impressive range of tones, while Mark’s growl is stronger than those heard in some bands that employ growling as their only vocal type. The duo’s skills are perfected on The Obsessive Devotion, Menace of Vanity and Living a Lie in particular. The music behind them is much heavier than some heard within this genre, with riffs that would fit just as well within melodic death metal. In fact if the symphonic elements and Simone were removed, the remainder of what was left of The Divine Conspiracy would almost be a melodic death release, proof in my mind that the band are pushing the symphonic genre into more extreme territory.

The song writing here is very progressive, song structures more so than actual sound. A good portion of the songs clock in at over 5 minutes, with more only just under. Despite the long track times (particularly the closing title-track, 13 minutes 57 seconds long) there is never a time when an itch to hit the skip button takes hold, because not a single second of The Divine Conspiracy’s 75 minutes is boring, even the intro and interlude songs keep my attention fixed on this album. On the first listen by the time the interlude song (La’petach Chatat Rovetz) arrives you will already have heard that The Divine Conspiracy is no one trick pony. You will have already had the anthem that is The Obsessive Devotion and Menace of Vanity, the mostly classical Chasing the Dragon and the almost poppy Never Enough (don’t let the fact that Never Enough is a bit poppy put you off, yes it does sound like Epica tried to write a hit single, but it’s still awesome, still heavy, and fits in well with this album) that by the time the second section of songs comes around, you’ll know that you can expect the next proper song to take on any form, and by doing this Epica have created an album that will keep your attention from the word go.

It is a concept album, but I’ve found the actual sound of the music so involving that I haven’t even tried to interpret the story that is running all the way through, I’ve been too busy rocking out to this beauty, and no, I’m not talking about their frontlady. From what I can tell the story has something to do with religion (according to wikipedia the story is that God created all religions and that humanity is supposed to discovered that they are all one and the same), but if you’re like me, you won’t care what the band are singing about, because you'll be listening to it intently. This is possibly the strongest symphonic metal release since Nightwish put out Oceanborn almost a decade before, and perhaps goes one better.

(Review originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)

adg211288 Before The Heart of Everything came out I happened to read a review for it in a magazine. It said that it’s symphonic metal. Good, that's what I've come to expect from post The Dance Within Temptation. Then it also said that it brought mind to Celine Dion. Now that did have the warning bells of the mind going off. Well, it turns out that at times during this album the person who wrote that review was actually kind of right with that statement, but there really wasn’t anything to worry about. The Heart of Everything is a solid piece of metal, and certainly it was one of my album highlights from 2007.

Opening up the album is The Howling, a song that is much more influenced by gothic metal rather than symphonic, though not to the standard of their early releases, Enter and The Dance. It has vocalist Sharon den Adel singing in a much more rocky voice rather than her usual melodic, almost operatic tones. The guitar riffing is much heavier than those heard of their previously offering The Silent Force, and much louder in the mix. I found that with The Silent Force the guitars were mostly drowned out by the symphonic elements, and given how well the sound came out on those songs on their DVD's, I'll put that down to a botched production job. Luckily on The Heart of Everything both the metal instruments and the symphonies sit neatly together in the mix, and this album has a much better sound for it, but sadly their previous actually had the better songs overall. That is not say that this is an about without its own highlights but material wise it's slightly inferior to The Silent Force.

The second song features a duet between Sharon den Adel and Keith Caputo of Life of Agony. To be honest Keith doesn’t do Within Temptation any favours here and all they succeed in doing is creating a song that - at risk of repeating something said many many times - sounds like Bring Me to Life by Evanescence. The main difference here is that What have You Done is a much better effort. This is coming from someone who actually likes Evanescence, just for the record. Yes it does sound like alternative rock/metal but no matter what many metal fans may think of music like that, Within Temptation can pull it off. It’s just not as welcome here as their more familiar symphonic metal. It is a good thing that this is the only song here that can be described as such, otherwise this review might have an entirely different tone to it.

Two highlights of The Heart of Everything are Our Solemn Hour and the title track. The former features excerpts from a speech by Winston Churchill, a powerful vocal performance and a section that actually brings mind to progressive rock. It’s one of the few Within Temptation songs that has a guitar solo, something that the genre of symphonic metal often lacks and is a much welcome addition in this album for me. The title track on the other hand is a much more unique song for Within Temptation because Sharon den Adel sings part of the song in a much more raspy voice than normal. It also features some backing vocals that while relatively quiet sound quite evil. There’s another guitar solo here as well, and the chorus is catchy but at the same time this cannot be called a pop song.

But that does not mean that there is not one song that can be called pop. This is where the Celine Dion reference must have come from. The song is All I Need. It does actual feature distorted guitars but only marginally. This is chart material and I can actually imagine it being performed on the now defunct Top of the Pops TV show but no one said that I had to review this album just for its metal quality. This song is beautiful and showcases Sharon’s talent as a vocalist and as a music composer as the songs music was composed entirely by her. Not metal at all, but makes for a great variety in this stunning album. This is symphonic metal in any case, softer songs often go pretty much with the territory.

Elsewhere we have the piano led Hand of Sorrow which quickly erupts into an excellent and very heavy song. It splits between heavy metal riffs and the piano sections. Sharon den Adel is very operatic here and the song is one of their more poppy ones because of it’s chorus but while it may not appeal to extreme metal fans, anyone who’s into symphonic metal should lap this up. Easily an album and career highlight. The Cross is another such masterpiece, and Sharon’s sudden vocal shift from the pitch she maintains throughout to a much higher operatic voice is fantastic to listen to. If I hadn’t heard it done live I think that I may think that it could only be done in two takes. Mind-blowing stuff.

Of the four tracks that I have yet to mention - Frozen, Final Destination, The Truth Beneath the Rose and Forgiven - there still is no real low point as the quality of material produced in The Heart of everything is, while greatly varied, consistently strong. If I have to name a weakest track I have to say Frozen, but with an album this good it really is a tough one to call. Forgiven is actually the obviously choice since it’s the album’s entirely classical song but it’s beautiful like All I Need is and fits in well with this album.

And so in summary while this may not be Within Temptation's best album to date but its another extremely solid offering them, a good thing since they seem very slow in releasing albums. It’s not quite perfect but few things are. The songs are well crafted and played to perfection. The vocals are provided by one of metal’s best female singers and this is a band that has advanced and improved their overall sound considerably. Symphonic metal and AOR may not work on paper, in fact if any other band had done this it may not have worked at all. That’s how good this album and indeed this band is. The addition of more guitar solos in the music is also very welcome. It’s strengths make it’s few weaker moments seem inconsequential. I highly recommend this.

(Review originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)

adg211288 The Classical Conspiracy by Epica is a very special album to me. The main reason is that it is a live album and I don’t generally like live albums as a rule. Those that sit in my collection tend to have been gifts, or brought when I was younger and just had to have everything the bands I liked had put out. Until this album came along, I don’t believe I had actually bought a live album by any band in at least two years, perhaps even three. I prefer to get the accompanying DVD if anything. But here we have a live album with no DVD version. Here we have a 2CD package only, and it is a live album that quickly found its way into my collection. Here’s why.

The music on The Classical Conspiracy is broken up into two sets. The Classical Set and the Epica set. It’s really the Classical set that drew me to buying the album. With the exception of two tracks, opener Palladium and Unholy Trinity, both composed by Epica’s own Yves Huts, the set is made of pieces of classical music, usually with metal arrangements played with them, Epica’s own material being notable exceptions along with the vocal pieces Ombra Mai Fu and Stabat Mater Dolorosa, which are the only parts of the set that Epica vocalist Simone Simons is present. The pieces are mostly quite old, with the oldest being Presto (1725), and the most recent, Pirates of the Caribbean (2003), although sadly this track is only one the European release. That is a shame because it is a highlight of the release.

Let’s talk about that track then. In a way it is technically a bonus for the European release, but it truly is the highlight of the album. The score for the Pirates of the Caribbean film was epic in its own right, but to throw metal with it just works is extremely good ways. Epic doesn’t begin to describe it really. The concert is played with an accompanying 40-piece orchestra and a 30-piece choir, which means that the traditional metal instruments don’t have to be there all the time and can pick the right moment to come in and when they do the results are fantastic.

Despite the downer of the best track not being on all versions there is rarely a moment in the Classical set that disappoints. If there is a weak moment, it is the two previously mentioned vocal pieces that they included. Not because of the fact they are vocal pieces, since Simone Simons really can pull this sort of thing off, but in comparison they’re a real change in pace and sometimes I feel like skipping them to get to the next instrument piece.

Other highlights from this set include The Imperial March (from Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back), Dies Irae (from Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem), Montagues and Capulets (from Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet) and In the Hall of the Mountain King (from Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt). Epica’s own Unholy Trinity (which originally appeared on their classical album, The Score) is also as nice addition to this set. Like its studio version it’s not metal, but fits in well with the covers.

The Epica set isn’t bad either. On its own I wouldn’t have brought this album, I just have it for the Classical set, but Epica show themselves to be a very competent live act here. They’ve made some good choices in the songs they played, with favourites of mine such as Chasing the Dragon, The Last Crusade, Quietus and Living a Lie included. There isn’t really much that can be said about this set, except that it’s solid and well performed by all band members. Mark Jansen’s growl comes out much harsher on some songs than on their studio versions which somehow works better at times than the original songs. Simone is flawless throughout. I’d really like to say more about this set, after all it is the Epica set where the Classical set is almost all covers but in truth, it’s the Classical set I’m recommending you buy this for, otherwise The Classical Conspiracy falls into the sort of territory I’d call a die-hard fans only purchase. After all, most live albums aren’t new material and often can be a hit or miss with fans. But this one is a definitely hit, and that is because Epica haven’t put out a typical generic live album, they’ve done something really special.

(Review originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)

adg211288 End of Eden is Amberian Dawn’s third album, keeping up with their one album a year output since 2008’s debut River of Tuoni. The band has always played a brand of neoclassical influenced symphonic power metal and Eden of Eden breaks no new territory in that regard, as most of the album follows this same formula as their previous two efforts. The band tries to break some new territory, such as by including an entirely classical piece, Virvatulen Laulu, on the album. Unfortunately that song doesn’t do them any favours, sounding out of place entirely. In all honestly elsewhere on the album Amberian Dawn isn’t exactly providing anything that breaks any new ground in their sound, but fortunately what End of Eden does give the listener is some of the band’s best songs to date, even if as a whole, End of Eden isn’t as solid as River of Touni or The Clouds of Northland Thunder, and may with time be seen as a bit of a stumble on their musical journey.

Two good examples of Amberian Dawn’s best songs are actually the first two tracks on the album, Talisman and Come Now Follow, especially the latter which is one of the album’s best songs overall. There is some really excellent neoclassical guitar going on here (think Yngwie J. Malmsteen style). If you looked at them you’d be forgiven for thinking that Amberian Dawn would be just another Nightwish clone, since all the key elements are present – soprano singer, keyboardist, some heavy guitars, you get the picture. But Amberian Dawn as a band is so much more. Yes, they have those elements of the typical symphonic metal band but they’ve honed that sound to perfection and expanded on it. True, End of Eden isn’t exactly something new for them, so what we really have to look for here is a solid album from a band who promise better to come.

With that said, End of Eden is probably their weakest album to date, and tracks like the aforementioned Virvatulen Laulu and lead single Arctica are the reason why. If you put Virvatulen Laulu aside as an experiment that didn’t really pay off (though it must be said it would sound so much better with just Heidi Parviainen’s vocals and not with guest male vocalist Markus Nieminen), Arctica may just be the band’s weakest song to date. Though it has its moments overall it just generally bores me that sometimes I want to skip it. Why the band choose this track as their lead single I’ll never know. In all honestly after hearing this for the first time I was severely worried about End of Eden being terrible. Fortunately it isn’t, far from it, but this and Virvatulen Laulu really drag down my enjoyment of the album as a whole.

Other highlights include Ghostly Echoes, Sampo, Field of Serpents and City of Corruption. The good does far outweigh the bad on End of Eden, but overall it is just a solid album and very far from a masterpiece, which after two strong albums I was hoping for on their third effort. They do however save one of the really best for last, the seven and a half minute War in Heaven. There is another guest singer here, Peter James Goodman, who has appeared on every Amberian Dawn album to date, but this time with some less clean vocals. Not growls, but somewhere in between. He’s a much more welcome guest than the opera singer from the previous track. Noted keyboardist Jens Johansson also provides some guest keyboard lead here and on the earlier track, City of Corruption.

Despite a couple of dud songs, the band is generally on top form with their performance, especially singer Heidi Parviainen and the guitar work. In fact if it wasn’t for those duds this album probably would be exactly what I had hoped for, but as it is Amberian Dawn still haven’t quite delivered us their masterpiece. Close, but no cigar. It's still worth a fan of the band owning, but I wouldn't advise it as the best starting point for a new listener.