I've just woken up and feel like writing this with my coffee, pardon any nonsensical rambling:
Well, here's the thing. This absolutely reeks of late 90s/early 00s Avantasia and Edguy. You can tell where the inspiration comes from, and that's not a bad thing. I don't hear much power metal in this vein anymore. It also screams of possible Fairyland influence, because there are quite a few moments on here that sound like an homage to their third album Score To A New Beginning, from the sound of the orchestration to the incredibly high pitched wailing, which is actually really good. As far as the trademark high pitched screams go, this album nails it. I believe Marius Danielsen does some of that himself along with much of the guitar and bass work so he's quite a talented fellow. Very gifted.
But my biggest problems lie in the lyrics, and much of the vocal melodies. The lyrics are horrifically trite. Golden promised lands, raise your shields, fight for victory and honor and glory, the Prophecy of the Warrior King and the High Wizard at Zal'throlm-Gahr et cetera - yaaaaawn. This staleness is compounded by many of the verses just having weak melodies and the singers sometimes sounding pitchy or tone deaf. Ripper Owens should not be singing that low, and then his characteristic wails are thrown in just because he's on the song, they don't belong there at all. Musically I just don't think it makes sense. A lot of the melodies don't resolve strongly and that really aggravates me in power metal of this style - it demands as strong a cadence as possible even in verses. I'm listening to Stratovarius's 'Giants' (the bonus track on Eternal) and it's a perfect example of classic power metal and I think a lot of the songs would've benefited from a little more work on vocal melodies.
There are lots of guests but I'm disapointed that in that whole 14 minute epic Alessio only had 2 quick lines by himself, and the rest of the time he's in the choirs so you can't identify him. I do love the song with Dragonland's singer on it. It is suited to his voice, his inflections, and it sounds 100% Dragonland. Edu Falaschi kind of brings it down a bit, though, at least I think that's him...
Some songs are just too cheesy for me to bother with. 'Chamber of Wisdom' starts off with a lot of cringe-inducing hammed up vocals. 'Mirror of Truth' has an incredibly awkward transition to the chorus, very jarring, and it reminds me so badly of Iron Maiden's 'The Wicker Man' it's too close for comfort. The singer sounds like Bruce Dickinson, too...
So many good things about this album and I would be in love with it if it weren't for a fatal combination of awful lyrics, cornball singing, and singers sometimes sounding off key or shoehorning in screams.
