I'm always scared by anything dubbed a "metal opera" that has a fantasy tale sort of concept going on, not to mention one that encompasses two CD's and more than two hours of music, but I have to say that this is pretty good. Sure, there are some folky little parts that sound like goofy medieval film soundtracks or some shit, and since the album does ebb and flow like a film would, there are some really slow/calm passages that are real fuckin' snoozers. However, when they cut the shit and rock out these cats aren't messing around: It's orchestral and subtly complex progressive/power metal at its finest. Just check out fast paced rippers like the catchy and energetic "Flight of Torek" or the shorter and more focused "The Beast Within". These tracks are, in essence, straight up power metal tracks with strong singing, basic drumbeats, fast picking patterns, subtle little melodies adding character to the riffing, etc. "The Siege of Aina" breaks out some riffing that reminds me of Judas Priest in a way, while the following "Talon's Last Hope" opens with a thick bluesy lead that sounds like a nasty sort of 80's rock track (and, oh, do I ever mean that in a good way). "Serendipity" is more of an acoustic ballad and sort of starts a slightly slow ending for disc one (interrupted only by the rockin' "Rebellion"), as the last set of tracks, especially the last two, are just too slow and boring to close out such a collection. Disc 2, an alternate disc of sorts, starts with a fucking 15-minute instrumental ("The Story of Aina"), so it's quite boring there for a good chunk of time. After that it's single and alternate versions of longer songs from the first CD, demo tracks, and the narrated version of "The Story of Aina" (also boring). So, truthfully, the second disc is basically a total waste of time. Sound-wise, overall keyboards and strings are pretty well used on this album. In a few of the more dramatic tracks that are based more around instrumentation the keyboards can dominate the mix, but in the actual full-blown metal tracks the guitars are brought to the fore, which is the way it ought to be. There are shitloads of layered parts, but it's pretty clear and mixed compactly without getting muddy or overly confusing. I wouldn't really change anything, and they seem to have paid a close ear to where each instrument is located based on the specific passage of any given song. I might like to hear the bass given more room, but the guitar tone and vocals sound great, and even the slightly rigid percussion works perfectly. I must say that the packaging here is among the most in depth and probably expensive I've ever seen. The two CD's and DVD come in sleeves mounted inside what is basically a digipack-sized hardcover book. Literally. The outer cover is a square book, and inside are about ?" of pages - literally four or five times the thickness of an average CD booklet. Outlined are the story of the concept album, all of the lyrics and narration, immense credits and contributor photos, and some behind the scenes notation regarding the inception of the project. Tons and tons of information. The DVD contains a "music video" for "The Beast Within", but I refused to watch it after the first five seconds because it's all done with hideously cheesy 3-D computer animation that basically looks like a bad video game or something. Truly awful. The 15 minutes of behind the scenes studio and interview footage is cool, though - mostly in English with subtitles otherwise, featuring recording tracks, background information about the project's writing/arranging, etc. Other than that there's a photo gallery or two, a narrated version of the story along with graphic storyboards, etc. I would've preferred to see longer behind the scenes footage and nothing else, but it's not bad, and everything has been handled and organized nicely here. And that's what weighs so heavily on my opinion of this. Make no mistake, there are a handful of fucking amazing songs here, total fistbanging power metal mastery, but the "storytelling" quality of some of the more textured and narrative material definitely hurts the impact. But this is so professionally handled and intricate as a project that I totally respect it. If they do a second installment I'd love to hear them emphasize the metallic songwriting a bit more, because they're fucking great at it.
[Transmission/The End]
Running time - 2:03:22, Tracks: 23
[Notable tracks: Flight of Torek, The Beast Within, The Siege of Aina, Rebellion]
The End Records - http://www.theendrecords.com
