Serenity - Death & Legacy (2011)

Serenity - Death & Legacy

It's always a pleasure when, as a listener, you stumble upon a band that you haven't listened to before. And so was the case when I first discovered the music of Serenity, accidentally stumbling upon the video for "The Chevalier" on YouTube one day. A few days later, Death & Legacy arrived through my letterbox and so began a new discovery for me in the world of power metal.

The thing that really lets down Serenity is their past efforts. 'Fallen Sanctuary' wasn' a terrible album, but it didn't exactly set the musical world alight. It was a rather mediocre album with small sprinklings of inspiration. Luckily, Death & Legacy represents a band who have really upped their game. From the opening aural cascade of "Set Sail To..." into the orchestral chords of "New Horizons", it's clear that this is a more polished listening experience.
It is true that Serenity haven't exactly pushed the boundaries of their genre, but this is nonetheless a very well made album from a band who not only play to their strengths, but also seem very aware of what the listeners expects from an album of this type. Songs such as "The Chevalier" (with a guest vocal appearance from Sirenia's Ailyn) and "State of Siege" possess soaring choruses, whilst "Far From Home" is an epic musical adventure from start to finish. The album follows the theme of historial figures, with every song portraying the story of famous figures from history such as Christopher Columbus, Sir Francis Drake, Giacomo Casanova and Marco Polo. But it's not a silly concept album full of songs with little impact- in fact, you could completely ignore the lyrical content of the songs and simply enjoy the sheer levels of musicianship occuring underneath.

The band themselves are in fine form. The guitar work is as you'd expect, with moments of flourish interspersed with simpler musical efforts, but all of it seems to work in the context of the album. The acoustic playing on "Changing Fate" is effective if not particularly challenging, but it matters little. After all, Serenity are a band who have a lot more going on with their music than just guitar work. The orchsetral sections are the finest factor on this album, with the opening to "State of Siege" being a certain high point of the album. The band don't hold back on the heavier side of things, either, with "When Canvas Starts to Burn" possessing a thrash-y riff that even Metallica would be proud of. The witch hunt themed "Serenade of Flames" also possesses a metallic crunch that some of the softer songs on this album do not. The vocal performance of Georg Neuhauser is up there with his contemporaries, channelling the likes of Sonata Arctica's Tony Kakko and even Nightwish's Marco Hietala on the heavier moments of the album. However, Neuhauser tempers all this with his own unique style, which seems familiar yet wonderfully individual at the same time.

As is the case with this style of music, you're unlikely to be unimpressed if you hate the likes of power metal or symphonic metal. If you're a fan of this genre, though, which is surely where the appeal of the album will lie, you're likely to find something to really like here. It's not a fantastic album but it's an impressive effort packed full of songs that demonstrate a real keen ear for a good tune. If this represents a turning point in Serenity's career, which I sincerely hope it does, here's hoping it leads to even greater things.
This is the sound of a band who know what they're doing, and who do it very well.

copas from http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/46862/Serenity-Death-%26amp%3B-Legacy/

Tracklist:
01. Set Sail To… (Intro)
02. New Horizons
03. The Chevalier [feat. Pilar "Ailyn" Giménez García]
04. Far From Home
05. Heavenly Mission
06. Prayer (Interlude) [feat. Pilar "Ailyn" Giménez García]
07. State Of Siege
08. Changing Fate [feat. Amanda Somerville]
09. When Canvas Starts To Burn
10. Serenade Of Flames [feat. Charlotte Wessels]
11. Youngest Of Widows [Limited Digipack bonus]
12. Below Eastern Skies (Interlude)
13. Beyond Desert Sands
14. To India's Shores [Limited Digipack bonus]
15. Lament (Interlude)
16. My Legacy

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Shakira - Smooth Jazz Tribute (2009)

Shakira - Smooth Jazz Tribute

Tracklist:
01. She Wolf
02. Hips Dont Lie
03. Beautiful Liar
04. Wheneber, Whereber
05. Underneath Your Clothes
06. Objection
07. La Tortura
08. Don’t Bother
09. Illegal
10. Animal City
11. Loba

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Tarja - Colours In The Dark (2013)

Tarja - Colours In The Dark

When Tarja Turunen took her larger-than-life operatic talents out of Nightwish and off to South Beach, she and her former band-mates engaged in enough back-biting and insults to fill an entire season of a Mexican soap opera (and a few Mexican wrestling matches as well). When all the bickering was done, Nightwish acquired Anette Olzon and soldiered on as Tarja began her solo career in earnest. While Nightwish has fared respectably with a few decent albums under their belt in the post-Tarja era, Tarja‘s solo outings have ranged from average to rather bad. Her voice remains a powerful and impressive tool, But she’s really struggled as a song-writer and a lot of her compositions strive for a blend of symphonic rock and goth metal that never quite gels. I heard slight improvement on 2010s What Lies Beneath, but it was nothing I needed to hear again and the album was quickly forgotten. Now she’s back with her third outing, Colours in the Dark (technically her fourth since she released a solo album whilst still in Nightwish), and it’s a mixed bag of cats. There are songs that work fairly well and a few that actually rock, but the song-writing is still very uneven and spotty. However, you can almost always count on Tarja to over-sing everything and her commitment to bombast makes things interesting and sometimes unintentionally hilarious. The best stuff is that closest to Nightwish and I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

Things open positively with the oversized Nightwish-esque, epic pomp of “Victim of Ritual” where Tarja goes Full Diva (you never go full diva!!) with way over-dramatic singing as she rolls every hard R she can find. If you can imagine Nicholas Cage as an opera singer, she sounds exactly like that, but the song is oddly fun and works in a goofy, endearing way. “500 Letters” is essentially a simple rock song that Heart could have written in 1983, but blown up by operatic fetishism and unrestrained enthusiasm. When Tarja sings the pop rock chorus like it’s Nessun Dorma, you’ll roll your eyes and laugh since it’s the aural equivalent of hunting quail with field artillery. Then you realize the song is stuck in your head like a goddamn pitchfork and Tarja has the last laugh. Tunes like “Lucid Dreamer” and “Deliverance” try to mine the same vein that Nightwish did with “Nemo” and both are decent, if a bit too lazy and sedate.

Also respectable, but on the dull side are tracks like “Mystique Voyage” and “Darkness,” where Tarja goes for mood and angst. “Medusa”, the lengthy closing track has a more attention-grabbing and ominous feel and Tarja is paired with Justin Furstenfeld (Blue October). It’s an interesting choice since Justin has a very Dave Matthews kind of delivery to counter-point Tarja’s drama queen wails. It works more often than not, though it feels too long.

Things go south with the nu-metal crunch of “Never Enough” which suffers from annoyingly overwrought vocals and a generic, phoned-in feel. “Neverlight” sounds like unused, watered-down Korn songs with Tarja going big on the opera over chunky, bland riffs. “Until Silence” is a big, sappy ballad loaded with 80s style Euro-pop keys and actually sounds like Erasure wrote it while on a major crying jag. As the song progresses it even starts to sound like the theme to Titanic (near…far…WHEREEVER YOU ARE!!!). Not good.

Tarja_Colours-In-The-Dark_press-pictures_photo-credit-Eugenio-Mazzingh_3There’s no denying Tarja has a big voice and that’s the appeal for her fans. She does manage to include nuance on the quieter, moody songs, but regularly overdoes it with the Diva schtick and sometimes it works, sometimes it totally doesn’t. A big issue here is the way the guitars are either muted, non-threatening and buried in the mix, or jacked up and made into nu-metal parodies. I get that this isn’t meant to be all that heavy, but the guitars are so often drowned out by the symphonics and the vocals, it makes it feel too soft and weak.

I’m not sure I’ll ever love a Tarja solo outing and I doubt she’ll ever rejoin Nightwish, so I guess I’m stuck. This is her best release as a solo artist, but it isn’t one I’ll be returning to often. If you crave soft, symphonic-laden goth metal with opera vocals, parts of Colours in the Dark will probably appeal to you. If you’re hoping this tops the recent output from her former band, you can forget it. I do love the odd, video-game like cover with Tarja dressed like the dude from Prototype.

copas from http://www.angrymetalguy.com/tarja-colours-in-the-dark-review/

Tracklist:
1. Victim of Ritual
2. 500 Letters
3. Lucid Dreamer
4. Never Enough
5. Mystique Voyage
6. Darkness (Peter Gabriel cover)
7. Deliverance
8. Neverlight
9. Until Silence
10. Medusa (feat. Justin Furstenfeld)

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Hideaki Tokunaga - Live (1994)

Hideaki Tokunaga - Live

Tracklist:
CD 1
01. Ayamachi no natsu
02. Boku no soba ni
03. Koi no yukue
04. Navigation
05. Mata asu wa kuru
06. Jealousy
07. Doushiyoumonaikurai
08. Saigo no iiwake

CD 2
01. Furusato
02. Okina furudokei
03. Koi no hana
04. Rainy Blue
05. FRIENDS
06. Wednesday Moon
07. Money
08. Revolution
09. Kowarekake no Radio
10. Tamashii no negai
11. Nostalgia

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Vintersorg - Orkan (2012)

Vintersorg - Orkan

The element of “Air“ is an odd concept, especially coming from a metal band. Sweden’s Vintersorg decided to take the challenge. Orkan is the second release from Vintersorg’s planned “Quadrology“, a 4 part epic that is supposed to convert and transmit the basic natural elements into an interesting musical voyage. Just as last year’s pulse of the earth (Jordpuls), air is always captivating and fresh... This is due to the fact that Mr. V always touches on different aspects that eventually leaded to the band’s new sound and (on Orkan) he fuses them to create his most concise and balanced album yet.

The lyrical composition is once again on Swedish, for me that manages to capture the ethnic nectar and spirit of this type of music. All around the production shines on this thing; the orchestral arrangements sound as natural as ever, the flutes are "there"while ever present, they neve drown out or overpower the impressive guitar work or ruin the vocals. The Hammond organ is revolving around providing a silly or nice beginning to certain songs but it also plays a vital role in the development of the album’s atmosphere. The rhythm and lead guitars come to life by Mattias Marklund & Mr. V himself, giving us some virtuostic solos here and there yet also alternating picking with Mattias on the more “black metal” tremolo sections which reminds of 1998’s Till Fjalls. Varied folkloric instruments approach the music on some parts of Orkan serving as great tools for beautiful experimental interludes.

Orkan is compromised of 8 pieces and clocking at fifty minutes it is one of Vintersorg’s longest material written to date, the average song length is from six to seven minutes, Mr. V not wastes a single minute though. Opening with Istid, vivid ideas hit you like the beautiful waves on Orkan's album cover. Istid is one of the best songs, Vintersorg Swede accented unique voice is accompanied by walls of tremolo picking and blast beats but ironically some moments later when the screams/shrieks come in the drumming is based upon simple fills backed-up by Mattias tasty power riffing. The orchestral arrangements move on the background accentuating the magical folk that goes on while a flute enchants the air. Air will not have such an impact without taking in count Vintersorg evolution as a band; the LP is plagued with the old fashioned brilliance of the past and modern perfection of the present. The blast beats of Till Fjalls, the prog from Cosmic Genesis or the avant-garde of Visions from the Spiral Generator whereas the mixture of both on Solens Rötter. The light-weight easy listening and earthly symphonies of Jordpuls; without them Orkan would not have been such a pleasant listen.

Another track to mention is Myren. The song opens with the Hammond organ that is suddenly accompanied by a violin before the song explodes into epic proportions, it is a dark song that cloaks the listener with brutal riffs and epic melodies but later becomes just mysterious and experimental, by the interlude you hear guitar improvisation that is enchanted by a Pink Floyd-esque tuning. Tracks like these could be just “good” songs but they become exceptional tunes thanks to tiny details and intricate experimentation. Having said that, Vintersorg is influenced by a huge number of acts; this is quite obvious but important because without those influences they would not be “unique” and “interesting”. Orkan‘s music is truly the catharsis and perfect representation of its splendid and gorgeous album artwork. A storm sweeping across the landscapes, a tsunami accompanied by lightning clouds… A hurricane containing exceptional sonic art. Vintersorg musically transmits the element of air in a way that it really feels like you’re floating along the wind. Air approaches the listener and immerses him in a magnificent experience.

For sure a band can travel many roads over the curse of their careers but not so many groups have the remarkable ability to maintain the essence that made them so good at the beginning; Vintersorg is a good example, they clearly have experienced a lot whether experimenting with the progressive leanings of Borknagar or challenging the barriers of contemporary music with Arcturus, Andreas Hedlund has traveled all the roads and they leaded here, Orkan is a musical accomplishment on many levels and rather than giving up I’m sure Mr. V will look forward for more perfectionism and establishing new musical goals on the future… who knows what waits for him. Orkan is a beautiful album plagued with different experiments and recollections from Vintersorg’s vast musical endeavors, it gets beneficed by all the past works and enlightened by the new ideas. What else could you ask for, more than only music, this is pure ethnic art; Orkan is supposed to be the musical embodiment of air and well… It is a cloud of refreshing air that you should truly breath, enjoy & immerse yourself into.

copas from http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/51474/Vintersorg-Orkan/

Tracklist:
01. Istid (5:52)
02. Ur Stjarnstoft Ar Vi Komna (7:08)
03. Polarnatten (7:25)
04. Myren (5:04)
05. Orkan (5:14)
06. Havets Nad (6:39)
07. Norrskenssyner (6:08)
08. Urvadersfangen (7:03)

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London Symphony Orchestra - Classic Rock (2001) CD 2

London Symphony Orchestra - Classic Rock CD 2

Tracklist:
01 (The London Sympfony Orchestra) Wind Of Change   
02 (The London Sympfony Orchestra) All Right Now   
03 (The London Sympfony Orchestra) The Rhytmen Of My Heart   
04 (The London Sympfony Orchestra) Help   
05 (The London Sympfony Orchestra) Senza Una Donna   
06 (The London Sympfony Orchestra) Word Of Mouth   
07 (The London Sympfony Orchestra) Light My Fire   
08 (The London Sympfony Orchestra) Saturday Night`s Alright   
09 (The London Sympfony Orchestra) How Am I Supposed To Live    
10 (The London Sympfony Orchestra) From A Distance   
11 (The London Sympfony Orchestra) Nessun Dorma

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