Azoria - Seasons Change (2014) Japanese Edition

Azoria - Seasons Change (2014) Japanese Edition

I suppose that the moniker AZORIA choice has something to do with the name of his leader Alex Oriz some kind of an anagram or something like that but it also holds a biblical meaning. His last band attempt under his own pseudonym, ORIZ has failed to be successful, so he changed the whole game and he reform a new project with a bunch of talented players and many friends helping in the lead vocal role,

This is the debut full-length from AZORIA, after AEON ZEN / SILENT VOICES / STAMINA / CLOUDSCAPE or SIGNUM REGIS, it’s a new trendy behavior currently popular in melodic Power Metal, which is to recruit different singers instead of searching and finding a new frontman. Originally this idea is a good manner to reinvent a new sound and bringing a lot of variety, but this early enthusiasm could be diminished by the weak genuine spirit of such enterprise, the impersonality revealed by most using such method and also the lack of durable impact, with AZORIA‘s “Seasons Change“, we are exactly in the same condition, a mix bag of style ranging from Scandi AOR to regular melodic Power Metal to Symphonic Gothic Modern Rock in the most ordinary form.

The casting of guest is exciting and well done, featuring a good sample of the diversity of the hot Swedish Metal scene. Let's go, first starting with the greatest: Tommy Johansson (REINXEED / GOLDEN RESURRECTION) & Mark Gunnardo (NORDIC MIST / JAWBREAKERS) for the traditional high pitch rendition, the best of all Mike Andersson (FULLFORCE / CLOUDSCAPE / SILENT MEMORIAL / PLANET ALLIANCE) belting out for another beautiful testosterone tenor trick in an almost heavenly perfection… Another good performance in his very own way for the title track, is provided courtesy of Mikael Dahl from CRYSTAL EYES, but unfortunately since then the whole things are going downhill in the songwriting quality. “When You Sleep” is the only song with a female vocalist, Matilda Eriksson’s smooth voice compliments the song well but the track itself is pretty unspectacular like a poor NIGHTWISH / AVALON generic undertake, but the worst is yet to come with the two tracks that features on lead vocals, one time KING DIAMOND / MEMENTO MORI / DREAM EVIL drummer,  the inimitable (and this time uninspired) Mr. Snowy Shaw in a very uninteresting couple of lackluster tracks and even finishing this short album on a bad note with the horrific cover of ALPHAVILLE’s “Big In Japan”, luckily only available in the Japanese Edition.

With very talented individualities, very eclectic never boring but nor original or genuine by any means, it has its moments with sometimes a sensation of an emotional rollercoaster emotional but not a real focus on a specific characteristic formula and a strong feeling of banality in the end…. Nothing exceptional if you ask me, Mighty Liljegren Records / Doolittle Group from Sweden has already provided tons of better releases.

copas from http://www.metal-temple.com/site/catalogues/entry/reviews/cd_3/a_2/azoria-seasons-change.htm

Genre: Heavy | Power Metal
Country: Sweden
Year: 2014
Audio codec: MP3
Riptype: tracks
Bitrate: 320 kbps
Playtime: 00:40:07
Size: 211 MB

Tracklist:
01 – Just Like The Phoenix [00:03:49]
02 – Inside My Heart [00:04:50]
03 – Seasons Change [00:04:32]
04 – Prophecy [00:03:19]
05 – To The Land Of Glory [00:03:45]
06 – When You Sleep [00:04:23]
07 – I Love It Loud [00:05:30]
08 – Starlight [00:03:24]
09 – Peace Of Mind [00:02:57]
10 – Big In Japan (Bonus Track) [00:03:33]

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