ALLEN-LANDE: The Great Divide

I'm not impressed with this trailer. I love Jorn's work in Masterplan, but it seems like everything else he does is subpar. Someone prove me wrong plz.

I am not sure if you are speaking musically or vocally. But musically Ark's Burn the Sun and Beyond Twilight's Devil's Hall of Fame are both amazing records. Aside from that and the first Masterplan, I have found the majority of his output to be mediocre at best.
 
I am not sure if you are speaking musically or vocally. But musically Ark's Burn the Sun and Beyond Twilight's Devil's Hall of Fame are both amazing records. Aside from that and the first Masterplan, I have found the majority of his output to be mediocre at best.

Jorn definitely needs a little help in the songwriting department; his solo work isn't bad, but it has gotten pretty stale the last several releases.

Pretty much anything else he has worked on is amazing though; check out Mundanus Imperium, the Millenium CD "Hourglass", and the Nikolo Kotzev CD "Nostradamus" (plus Nikolo's Brazen Abbott material, if I recall correctly) for some other excellent releases.
 
It works. Solid but not flashy. Then again, the last of the Karlsson albums was the same way with Russ and Jorn. I'll take another 5-6 albums of this caliber any day though.
 
Jorn definitely needs a little help in the songwriting department; his solo work isn't bad, but it has gotten pretty stale the last several releases.

Pretty much anything else he has worked on is amazing though; check out Mundanus Imperium, the Millenium CD "Hourglass", and the Nikolo Kotzev CD "Nostradamus" (plus Nikolo's Brazen Abbott material, if I recall correctly) for some other excellent releases.

Not to mention some of his solo work, particularly Out to Every Nation where the band consists of Stian, Jorn Viggo, and Ronny, all of Pagan's Mind, along with Magnus Rosen on bass.
 
Well, it wasn't bad, but it sure was bland as hell. It takes some real talent to make Jorn and Allen sound bland.

So why would Russell Allen and Jorn Lande invite Timo Tolkki to be involved in this project if they thought he was going to make them sound bland?

I'm not a fan of Tolkki's behavioral antics, but from what my ears have heard so far, he's breathed some fresh life into this project, IMO.
 
So why would Russell Allen and Jorn Lande invite Timo Tolkki to be involved in this project if they thought he was going to make them sound bland?

I'm not a fan of Tolkki's behavioral antics, but from what my ears have heard so far, he's breathed some fresh life into this project, IMO.

I'm not sure it's Allen and Lande that "invited" Tolkki. I think the Allen/Lande project is a thing of the Frontiers Records dudes and it's them who picked Tolkki to replace Magnus Karlsson. Allen and Lande never wrote a thing for these 4 albums, they just sing on songs they're given. Russell once mentioned before this 4th album was being discussed that he never ever met Jorn in his life...

That's my take, maybe I'm wrong.

I had no expectations due to Tolkki being involved, who had not made an album I enjoyed for many many years (and his Avalon albums sucked really bad) but he did a great job on this and The Great Divide is really excellent IMO.

Guillaume
 
So why would Russell Allen and Jorn Lande invite Timo Tolkki to be involved in this project if they thought he was going to make them sound bland?

I'm not a fan of Tolkki's behavioral antics, but from what my ears have heard so far, he's breathed some fresh life into this project, IMO.

To be honest, the new songs posted are much better.
 
Tolkki can still write a tune. He was asked to do a job here, and he did it. That being said, if they do a 5th, and they really must do a 5th, I hope they hand it off to yet another person, maybe Erik Martensson. What I'd really like to see is Tobias Sammet write a dedicated Allen-Lande album, although I guess we already had an Avantasia album featuring both heavily.
 
I thinks it's a great album.
To me, this one is the best of the four they have released so far!

Perhaps a couple of songs on the other albums are as good/better, but as a whole album, this one is their best. To be honest, I had my doubts when I heard Timo would write the music, but fortunately he proved me wrong!
The songs are very strong, and Russell and Jorn are amazing as usual. Again, great album!