I'm not gonna lie, I was actually excited to see that this Finnish power metal act had a new record out.? They won me over big time with "Winterheart's Guild" and I now consider myself a fan.? But sadly this record's really just not as good, though it still stays true to their brand of incredibly bombastic and ridiculous (in the best possible way) power metal - complete with soaring vocals and choral harmonies, shitloads of orchestral synths, dueling guitar and keyboard solos, fistbanging hard rock mayhem, etc.? I'll admit, "Winterheart's Guild" had "The Cage", which is quite possible the best power metal song I've ever heard in my entire fucking life, so in a way the odds were unfairly stacked against this record from the start.? After a few listens, it's clear that there are some stellar moments here, and my complaint is not that it's a bad record by any means, simply that it's fairly dull and overly long for what it offers.? For example, opener "Misplaced" is good enough but never really hits it out of the park, while "Blinded No More" follows with a sweet fuckin' chorus (amazing, really), but the rest of the track is just sappy and unmotivated midpaced rock, while the chorus only makes a couple of appearances within five-and-a-half minutes. Third up, "Ain't Your Fairytale" finally ventures into more energetic territory with faster picking patterns and vocal arrangements that rev things up nicely. This is where Sonata Arctica shines than many similar bands fail: You can't stick with those midpaced, fist in the air tempos all the time, you've gotta kick it up a notch and go wild with some faster and livelier speeds like this - it's essential. This particular offering isn't a spectacular song, it's somewhat similar to the opener in that it's good enough but doesn't particularly floor you, but the variety is certainly efficient. Strike one comes with "Reckoning Day, Reckoning Night", though. Come on, a three-minute keyboard instrumental interlude at the fourth track? No fuckin' way, talk about killing the momentum! That's a waste of three minutes right there, and were it shaved off along with a couple of other tracks/segues the disc would carry a more compact running time that would make more sense. "My Selene" is another zippy track that mixes things up with some clean guitars during the verse parts but picks up the pace for a super anthemic chorus that saves the day amidst a couple of other somewhat uneventful pieces - not the least of which is the annoying narration and synth work that introduces "Wildfire" - a raging track with plenty of speed and a little more of an in your face disposition that I'm way into. "White Pearl, Black Oceans" is the "epic" of the disc, hitting nearly nine minutes and making quite a journey for itself with tons of classic overdramatic devices. Sadly its generally midpaced strut makes for a less than memorable listen, saved in part by some great choral vocal harmonies, but never really possessing much in the vein of musical zest. Thus making acoustic laden power ballad (eventually they do crank in the distortion) "Shamandalie" a less than fitting close as well - ignoring the unlisted track of a randomly upbeat acoustic jam recorded from a distance. The recording is fine, of course. A little muffled, just barely, but very nice. The drums are kept in check, the bass is there but pretty hard to hear because it scarcely matters, the keyboards are expertly handled, and the vocals sound great. The guitar tone is nice and heavy and uses a crisp distortion, but I think it needs a little more brightness. It takes your ears a couple of songs to adjust since there's a little added low-end in there somewhere, but once you get used to it the disc plays through without a hitch. Despite the obligatory uses of cheesy band photos and fantasy artwork I'm fine with the layout because at least the cover looks good. Cheesy lyrics and artwork are a staple of this genre, so I'm not going to nitpick anything to death with this one. I'm just not interested in lyrics when it comes to this music, so I'm not going to bother going into detail there. It's all about catchy songs and emphatic performances with this stuff, they can sing about whatever they want, there's nothing here that goes so far overboard that it's worth pointing out, so that's cool. Giving this a 6/10 seems almost unfair since there's a great deal of quality to the work, but I can't help but be somewhat bored by this record, and I know for a fact this band can do better because they've already done so on several occasions. Plus there are only two songs on this thing that are 100% forceful from start to finish, while there are at least three tracks that are wholly dull. I'm actually really pissed off that they wasted such an astoundingly perfect chorus in a bland as hell rock 'n' roll snoozer like "Blinded No More", too. That fuckin' chorus is worth a million god damn bucks, I'm telling you. I'll still follow these guys in the future without question, but they can do better than this. Definitely.
[Nuclear Blast]
Running time - 55:20, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Ain't Your Fairytale, My Selene, Wildfire]
Nuclear Blast - http://www.nuclearblastusa.com
