Back in 2013 I had a informal introduction to The Murder Of My Sweet when I received a copy of their beautiful front woman’s Angelica Rylin’s solo album Thrive. Although at the time I had not heard The Murder Of My Sweet yet I could already notice the power in Angelica Rylin’s voice. It was one of the most powerfully seductive and clear vocals I ever heard male or female. AngelicaRylin simply knows how to tell a story with her vocal prowess. This is very much confirmed indeed with The Murder Of My Sweet’s 2015 release Beth Out Of Hell.
Now I know most people will be critical of the title Beth Out Of Hell. I know many will take it as a pun off Meatloaf’s Bat Out Of Hell trilogy, however this is very far from being the case. The MurderOf My Sweet’sBeth Out Of Hell is a concept story about the worlds end through apocalypse and a unlikely alliance and romance beginning in the midst of the hell and chaos that has been unleashed on earth. While on the surface it sounds like another concept album, I beg to differ.
Beth Out Of Hell is a very living and breathing story. The characters come right out in a tasteful distinct manner instead of the characters being force fed like on other concept albums. Mostly people write soundtracks based on the plot of a film or movie. Beth Out Of Hell is a melodic film or movie come to life on the screen inside the theater of the of the mind of the listener through song.
Although Beth Out Of Hell carries the ‘cinematic metal’ tag, it is so much more. It contains heavy elements of symphonic metal, hard rock, AOR, gothic metal, etc. While some so-called ‘concept’ albums are purposefully written, recorded and engineered to break between tracks, Beth Out Of Hell has some very tight and proper spoken word segway’s of continuity between tracks. It may be multi tracked with thirteen tracks however the listener can not tell with the brilliant engineering and mastering of the concept.
Hell On Earth is basically part instrumental part narrative that introduces the listener to the project before them. Hell On Earth sets up a nice dramatic backbone for the story.
The Awakening has some seriously powerfully symphonic harmonies as if a orchestra were scoring a film. The boys choir places a melodic accent of brief innocence before the track takes off. The keyboards are tracked in a way as not to remove anything from the vocal narrative. The Awakening has the standard verse, bridge, chorus yet in a very orchestral matter. At the 4:12 , markAngelica Rylin’s vocals are part harmony part spoken word.
World Of Ashes starts out with a spoken word narrative that keeps building upon the original conceptual premise. The drums and bass rhythm section really carry the track giving it a brooding audio appearance and heavy progression. There is some tight male choral parts in the backing vocal.
Always A Fugitive once again shows Angelica Rylin going in and out of a semi spoken word semi melodic vocal. This really makes it easier for the listener who is wanting to be more at home with the lyrical content and story than the instrumental. This track continues to build on the dramatic dynamic of Beth Out Of Hell.
Bitter Love introduces us to the male character for the first time in the concept. It opens with both a male spoken word and melodically sung passage. Bitter Love has a semi AOR vocal harmony that builds upon the symphonic aspect of the narrative. This is more a ballad on the album.
Still opens up with the female character in a dream like state and the female character requesting his attention. Still is a straight away symphonic gothic hard rock track. It contains a strong deep rhythm section on top of choral elements. Still is laced with progressive elements throughout the track. Still is the first track we see a actual guitar solo.
The Humble Servant starts off with a brief spoken word passage before exploding into a symphonic progressive time signature. The signature has over the top rhythm sections in harmony with over the top keyboard parts. This track continues the dramatic flair the band have apparently sought out to convey to the listener. At about the 3:00 mark the guitar solo manipulates the listening experience and gives the listener the appearance it too is talking.
Requiem For A Ghost opens up with a nice keyboard atmosphere giving the track a sound like a instrumental love letter. The male vocal has really become a second character. Requiem For A Ghost is like a gothic AOR track in the beginning before exploding in the more modern symphonic signature. There are various instrumental signatures within the track that serve as one hook to another as to not allow the listener to become complacent and bored. Requiem For A Ghost reminds me of many of Tobia’s Sammets, Avantasia tracks containing a lot of power metal elements aswell.
Euthanasia continues with the spoken word element from the start. It soon is followed by a heavy melodic AOR metal vibe. Angelica’s vocal has more and more conviction as the story goes forward. Lyrically Euthanasia is a crossroads track within the storied narrative. The keyboard towards the end is very symphonic in nature.
Tide After Tide opens up with a instrumental ghostly effect. The male character is starting to question things by now. The keyboard programming gives the listener the appearance that the male character is somewhere along a body of water whether ocean or lake. Lyrically you can hear a lot of personal reflection happening within the main male and female characters.
Poets By Default has the male narrative giving Beth a stern warning and her taking instruction. Poets By Default both instrumentally and lyrically is a strong call to action for the main character of Beth. At the 2:50 mark there is a nice easy break and Angelica’s voice takes a sultry and passionate departure.
Heavenly Succumb starts out with a powerful explosion of symphonic bliss. That is soon accented by a power vocal. This contains a lot of heavy rhythmic distortion in the instrumental. The guitar has a very intricate exchange between a lead to rhythm instrumental.
Means To An End opens up with a plural spoken word vocal narrative. This is the final track of BethOut Of Hell and allows the listener to continue the story in their minds or to have closure as well. There is a wonderful interchange between the lead vocal and the mini choir delivery by the male backing vocal. The way Means To An End ends Beth Out Of Hell also allows the audience to speculate whether this will be a ongoing story or perhaps a sequel to Beth Out Of Hell.
Beth Out Of Hell impressed me. This is a very easy concept to follow. The band, if they choose to do so, can put this in its entirety as a full concept on the live stage while maintaining the original integrity the concept had in the recording studio. In a year dominated with many concept albums both in the progressive and symphonic spectrum, Beth Out Of Hell has found its own niche without compromising their sound. I give this a 4/5 for its total original perspective.
It is 1987 and I had just bought a little known album called The Final Countdown by Europe. It was the song of Cherokee that MTV had in heavy rotation at the time that finally made me breakdown and purchase the album. I thought to myself here is another hard rock GLAM Band they are trying to commercialize especially of the catchy hooks in the title track The Final Countdown. That album had the hallmark formula at the time of several rocker tracks, a anthem track and two ballads. You could say it was the cookie cutter formula for success of its time.
This was at the time when everyone was looking towards the Sunset Strip in Hollywood California for the ‘next big band’. However on the contrary this particular band came from Sweden which gave it a little heavier sound of the time when the Poison’s , Warrant’s, Motley Crues, and Bon Jovi’s were always in demand in heavy rotation on MTV and radio stations globally. Soon the ‘Grunge Infestation’ out of Seattle would hit around 1990-1991 and bands like Europe in the Western Hemisphere were totally irrelevant from the general market formula record labels were going with and Europe were relegated to the Eastern Hemisphere of continental Europe, Asia, and Australia.
Fast forward to 2015 and the GLAM metal tag has been replaced with ‘Hair Metal’ and those bands seem like relics that only play the nostalgia circuits of casinos or state fairs. I have moved on in my taste in music as well with heavier more progressive oriented metal and rock. A friend of mine kept pestering the hell out of me for a while to listen to the new Europe War of Kings album. In all honesty I was hesitant at first. After a full listen I was taken back and astonished by what I heard.
This was a much darker, heavier, more serious band than I had experienced a few decades before in my youth. Europe in sound and even appearance has made every effort to distance themselves from that Glam Metal/Hair Metal stigma. You can say they grew up and matured where most of their contemporaries have yet to do. What has really impressed me about the album is the way it pays homage to the pioneering sounds of Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Cream and elements of LedZeppelin. Lush candy coated glossy keyboard’s have now been replaced with heavier more bottom sounding hammond organ sounds. The finger tapping scale progressions on guitar are more rhythm and tritone based progressions.
War Of Kings starts out with a Deep Purple’s Mandrake Root meets Black Sabbaths Iron Man with modern melodic sensibility. Joey Tempest sounds better now than he did say in the 1980’s. Whereas some of his peers range has subsided over time Joey Tempest seems to have gotten stronger. Even John Norum’s guitar playing has gotten more bottom serving even in the solo’s. MicMichaeli has even modified his keyboard sound to mirror Jon Lord than the high glossed polished progression as he used in the 1980’s.
Hole In My Pocket opens up with a sick raunchy progression. This progression reminds me very much of Highway Star meets Space Truckin‘. There are appropriate breaks and the track continue rolling along. Hole In My Pocket would have appeal to fans of early 1970’s straight away power rock.
Second Day opens up much like Child Of Time where there is a heavy hammond organ progression and isolated vocal in harmony. About the :30 mark the track takes a more conventional hard driving rock signature. Second Day is one of the more progressive based track on War Of Kings.
Praise You explodes with almost a proto – doom progression before settling down with a deep bottom heavy bass work of John Levén in dark harmony with Ian Haugland – Drums. Lyrically many people can see a little of themselves within the track. Praise You even has elements of stoner metal/rock.
Nothin’ To Ya has a sweet little drum roll towards the beginning. This track opens very much like Ronnie James Dio era Black Sabbath with the song ‘I’ . It takes on heavy rhythmic guitar passages with a ghostly type keyboard to give accent.
California 405 has more of a Bad Company Ready For Love meets Rainbow Stone Cold progression. This track definitely takes on more of early West Coast AOR with power hammond organ replacing a cleaner more polished keyboard. The guitar give the listener the appearance it is pumped through a bass amp more than a Marshall stack.
Days Of Rock N Roll opens with a rolling guitar with a hammond organ in harmony with the tight rhythmic progressions. This is one of the more up tempo tracks on the album. Europe has even sprinkled old 1960’s to 1970’s Scorpions into Days Of Rock N Roll. Lyrically it talks about nostalgia.
Children Of The Mind shows the band with a more old school doom sludge progression. Children OfThe Mind reminds me a lot of 1980’s era Trouble. The rhythymic progressions are really tight by now and you begin to notice the bands metomorphosis into a vintage sound with very modern sensibilities.
Rainbow Bridge starts with a more mellotron based keyboard progression with a slow heavy rhythm section. It is as if the vocal is echoing the keyboard. The drum fills are totally built around the bottom bass drum. The track plays to this progression throughout its duration.
Angels (With Broken Hearts) is definitely Lazy meets Child Of Time. This is a very heavy blues oriented progression. The blues I speak of is more New Orleans meets Memphis blues almost getting into a mild jazz fusion signature. This track is full of emotion and stalks the mind of the listener to a more mellow feel. If their were a ballad on War Of Kings this track would be the closest. This is more a Deep Purple Mark Three line up with Coverdale/Hughes blues type mirrors Mistreated.
Light Me Up & Vasastan are basically tracks that give a overview of the previous tracks in the arrangement. Vasastan is part instrumental part verse run from the title track War Of Kings.
Some critics will say that a leopard can not change its spots or snake shed all its skin to manage with the changes of life. Well I believe Europe have certainly made a statement album shattering the old Glam/Hair Metal stigma they were lumped into. Both in appearance and in sound this is the strongest Europe album to date. It will certainly win over a older guard that wanted to dismiss them at the same time attracting a newer crowd getting into the older more vintage sound. I give both band and album a 4/5 for the courage to go against the typical expectation placed on them.
Let’s face it, 2015 has most definitely been a banner year in progressive rock and metal since the years of the early 2000’s . We have seen many new faces rise like Australia’s Arcane, Poland’s Abstrakt and Russia’s Emerald Mind. We have seen some of the familiar return as well, SymphonyX, Riverside, and even a stage version to Ayreon’s 2004 project of The Human Equation with the Theater Equation.
Now comes a band out of the great white north of Manitoba Canada called Grand Master. They have risen with a brilliant concept album titled Saligia. After multiple listens of this fine piece of musicianship I can now say the old guard with the Dream Theater’s, SymphonyX’s, Vanden Plas’ and Threshold’s are all on notice. Grand Master will be spoken about in the same breath and the bands I just mentioned. I would even go out on a limb and on record to say that the bands I just mentioned should seriously consider Grand Master as a future opening act.
I am normally not this bold, however Saligia is a very different concept album. It is a story of nine tracks consisting of track one Capital Vices such as tracks 2.Pride, 3.Greed, 4.Lust, 5. Envy, 6. Gluttony, 7.Wrath and 8.Sloth. And there track 9. Holy Virtues to offset the Vices in the story. They have taken the listener in this concept and placed them in a reality of reflection on life, what is there and what can be. Now the breakdown of the masterpiece that is Grand Master’s Saligia.
Capital Vices opens with a deep heavy and dark intro progression for the first 1:16. Then it takes another progression on with a crunchy distortion of guitar. At the 1:52 mark it explodes and the band are on all cylinders. Both the stringed section of guitar and keyboard work in harmony with the deep rhythm progressions. The keyboard appears to go into realms of neo progression much like Dream Theater’s Images and Words and Awake albums. Capital Vices is the only instrumental on the album. Towards the 2:20 mark the track takes on a regression with the right while hooking you with another progression with the left. The track flows quite fluid into track 2. Pride.
Pride starts off with a thunderous progression with the drums and bass before going into a more verse progression with vocals at the 1:40 mark. The vocals remind me of another Canadian outfit Annihlator. Pride consists of several thunderous hooks and progressions. The band nicely fits a multitude of passages in its 4:09 entirety. Then the album takes a total riff progression leading and flowing into track 3.Greed.
Greed stays on point with some serious rhythmic riff work on the guitar by Shane Barron. Greed at its core takes on a thrash metal style quality in progression. The vocals often remind me of early Kronos of Venom meets DRI’s Spike Cassidy or even Overkill’s Bobby Blitz before balancing out to a more traditional progressive metal vocal. There is a rare punk sensibility about Greed. Nice tight blast beats with serious intricate chord progressions. About the 2:48 mark the vocals take the more deathy black metal style growls and screams. The track flows fluidity into Lust.
Lust begins with a nice acoustical passage that is ethereal in nature. The bass and drum rhythm sections come in harmony quite nice with the stringed section. The band displays two dimensions of their talent while bringing it together in a spot on well engineered progression. At the 2:25 mark a nice violin perfectly compliments the stringed section. At the 3:45 mark the track takes a very odd yet tasteful psychedelic vibe. There are layers upon layers of keyboard effects. It gives the listener the appearance there are two seperate tracks into one single composition. Towards the 6:40 mark to end of the track the composition takes on a semi acoustical semi electric atmosphere. Once again the band has a deathy vocal in harmony with the lead.
Envy opens up with almost a sheer Arabic scale vibe meets a primal east African style percussion giving the album a unpredictable quality. At the 1:45 mark the keyboards come in almost in a minimalist krautrock style before balancing out to a more progressive exchange of various time signatures and hooks. Envy is also sprinkled with subtle yet noticeable Djent math post rock signatures at various times after the 4:00 mark. About the 4:39 mark there is a guitar and keyboard exchange before at the 5:30 mark where Envy takes a more jazz to blues style progression before going to the traditional prog metal signatures.
Gluttony begins once again with a heavy bottom progression in the rhythm section. There is a progression giving the listener a appearance of being stalked. At the 1:25 mark the vocal takes a very deep board line vibe that reminds me of the late Pete Steele of Type O Negative. Gluttony takes on a very heavy horror style and even incorporates some nice spoken word tracks that give the listener a more vintage horror film score effect.
Wrath opens up with some strange special effect as if someone enter a room lurking for trouble. Wrath takes on a progression that incorporates a 1990’s alternative sound. It is met with a nicely engineered guitar echo before exploding at the 2:00 mark into a more traditional progression instrumentally with a offset spoken vocal. Wrath is a reminder that Grand Master refuse to be pigeonholed into one single time signature, progression or sub genre. Wrath has its tentacles in the punk and alternative world while carrying the traditional progressive metal signatures. Wrath serves up a great dynamic of various experimental properties not traditionally heard in the progressive metal and rock community.
Sloth serves as a transitional track before the other half of Siligia takes the listener on a 21:44 journey of Holy Virtues. Sloth has a heavy ballad style while maintaining a more traditional old school prog rock progression.
Holy Virtues opens with a slow but easy progression bringing the listener in gently and delicate. The orchestration is a true progressive one with a traditional longer progressive rock instrumental orchestral. Holy Virtues brings the listener in in such fashion where they can paint a vivid film in the theater of the mind. The opening instrumentation even has some heavily dispersed folk elements before the vocal comes in at the 4:18 mark. This track takes on elements that remind me of classic rock in the vein of The Eagles and Steve Miller Band meets Yes or Genesis. This is supported with the rolling acoustical underbelly. At the 7:35 mark the rhythm section of the drums and bass are almost a jazz fusion progression that keeps the listeners interest intrigued. At the 8:42 mark the keyboard once again takes on a neo progressive element on top a good guitar solo. About the 9:50 mark Holy Virtues takes on almost a symphony style orchestration with semi classical progressions and signatures before balancing towards the traditional signatures. The track goes in and out of the heavy progressive hallmarks satisfying the progressive purists while attracting a newer listener base. From the 13:30 mark towards the end the track takes on a easy listening experience all the while as to not insult the prog purist intelligence. A gentle balance of various progressions in other words.
Much like previous progressive concept albums like Pink Floyd’s Darkside of The Moon to the Dream Theater’s Metropolis 2: Scenes From A Memory to the Pain Of Salvation’s BE and PerfectElement Part 1. Grand Master’s Saligia maintains the traditional progressive rock/metal integrity while appealing to a much younger audience through the harder more death and metalcore elements. I give Saligia a 4.25/5 for great integrity while appealing to various musical demographics and pallets.
For well over the last 15 years I have been amazed with the female fronted metal scene out of the Russian Federation. It is 2006 and I just joined Myspace at the time. I was searching for obscure independent music from the Russian Federation for a article I was writing. The very first precious gem I discovered was the all female symphonic metal band Blackthorn. I was totally blown away by what I heard in Blackthorn, therefore I continued to search and investigate other bands.
I came across two more female fronted bands. The next one was the epic folk metal band Alkonost. Their use of 16th century Celtic and renaissance elements really caught me by surpirse. The third one was the band from Moscow Russia named Arkona. Now Arkona kept with much the epic folk metal theme as Alkonost. After all that my musical radar was up for Russian Federation bands.
It is now 2015 and a new jewel of Russia has emerged on my musical radar. This would be EmeraldMind. Unlike their early predecessor’s who had a heavy epic folk viking influenced sound, EmeraldMind has decided to go with a more power progressive metal orchestral sound. These influences and sound are very present on their new album Civilization.
Civilization is a concept album about mankind’s role on earth and the significance of it. The album is makes up nine different stories about human beings in their day to day lives. It is a album about thought and reflection. The listener can easily relate and identify with the various characters inside Civilization. The concept of Civilization is the brain child of two people, Alexey Vaulin and SvetlanaVysotskaya out of St Petersburg Russia. Now a breakdown of Civilization.
Another Life opens up with a spoken word passage. It is as if the character is in morning traffic during the daily grind of a routine day. The keyboards creating the melodic atmosphere before the track takes a heavy speed power progression. At about the :40 mark the track takes a progression of ascension. Svetlana’s beautiful operatic soprano voice comes into the scene at about the 1:00mark. The track weaves in and out with various time signatures and progressions that are wonderfully orchestrated by Alexey Vaulin. At the 3:00 mark the track takes a twist with the effects of a police car siren with the instrumental progressions involved.
Secrets opens up with a special effects of a person getting into a car and taking off that is subsequently following by the opening instrumental passage. The is a nice break at the 1:00 mark and the vocal and drum rhythm are in harmony before once again being joined by the heavy rhythm guitar and keyboard stringed section. We see two very different beautiful guitar solos going in and out between the 2:00 to 3:00 marks. The drums have a great even continuity throughout Secrets.
Astronaut In Her Space begins with a heavy bottom bass guitar that is followed in harmony with various drum fills. This is all followed by a power metal lead guitar going in and out with a heavy distorted rhythm guitar section. The vocal stays consistent throughout the track as the instrumental takes on various breaks and progressions. The drums are times isolated before the lead guitar solos take the track in various directions.
Theater starts off as if the listener is being drawn in by the various time signatures. The instrumental soon takes off with a fierce power metal signature. Svetlana’s register and range continue to get more powerful as the album progresses from track to track. The keyboard has such a laid back yet subtle atmosphere carrying the various guitar solo portions before going to a full piano at the 3:00 mark. At the 3:40 mark it is a straight away shred fest going in and out of various scales. Svetlana tastefully double tracks her voice as if there are more than just her in the background.
Civilization starts off with a neo progressive keyboard passage. This is followed by a steady rhtyhm section with a beautiful semi electric semi acoustical guitar passage. At the 1:24 mark the track breaks into a nice harmony of the vocal playing off both stringed and rhythm sections. The band also explores more keyboard layers. At the 3:00 mark the track has a nice guitar solo before breaking again into a steady rhythm beat portion. There is a nice chorus towards the end.
Save Me For The Moon opens with a nice isolated guitar solo before taking a power progressive approach. The band have a uncanny ability to hook you into every track on Civilization and Save MeFor The Moon serves as a perfect example of that. The band have clearly used the power and progressive elements to forged their own unique sound by time this track comes. They begin to find their identity here at this point. Lyrically this appears to be a love letter.
When Storm Clouds Talk opens like a melodic thunderstorm rolling in. Thick keyboard atmospheres with a thick guitar and rhythm sections speak volumes. The band uses both female operatic and clean male vocals. There are some great keyboard atmospheres isolated as Svetlana is singing the chorus part. Once again the band does a good job with double tracking of Svetlana’s vocals making them appear to echo off her lead vocal portions.
Early Morning opens up with a very unusual yet appropriate jazz progression. Konstantin Stukov appears on the trumpet. This is a very deep trumpet throughout the track. Early Morning is definitely a departure track from the power metal elements to more experimentation with the heavier progressive passages. There is a nice jazz fusion guitar solo to compliment the jazz backbone the trumpet has set through the track. Early Morning sounds much like a Alan Parsons and Chicago vibe.
Neverend treads softly as it opens up with a beautiful orchestration of all the elements that have been heard on Civilization thus far. The band continues with various hooks, progressions and time signatures bringing the listener comfortably into the compostion. At the 1:55 mark Svetlana’s comes into perfect alignment with Alexey’s orchestral compositions. Neverend displays the bands entire potential and talent. It is perfectly arranged on the album as to give the listener anticipation for future releases.
After listening to Emerald Mind’s Civilization, I see great potential that can make the Russian Federation a future stronghold for metal and progressive rock oriented music. Emerald Mind is proof that there is untapped potential within the Russian Federation. I believe with the right promotion and live show exposure Emerald Mind will be a band a lot of people will be talking about and many bands will want tour with for years to come. I give Civilization a 4.25/5 for the diverse direction the band sought on Civilization.
When we start talking about female fronted progressive metal acts or metal acts in general the parts of the world that come to mind are the Scandinavian Countries in Northern Europe, with Nightwish , Italy with Lacuna Coil, The Netherlands with Epica and the now defunct After Forever and Belgium with Virus IV. However France has certainly established itself as a mecca for good quality female fronted dark progressive metal with Pnumbera just over a decade ago and now the dark metal opera band Adrana.
Adrana have a new conceptual release for 2015 called Foreshadow. Adrana another proof that women actually taking the lead in heavy metal and progressive music has not been a phase nor trend. Adrana are proof that women can certainly lead in this genre and lifestyle of music that is not about to fade away any time soon. Much like their French predecessor’s Pnumbera, Adrana have a well balanced mix of female operatic vocals blended with male growling death vocals and male clean vocals through the filter of Dark Progressive Metal. Herein is a breakdown of Foreshadow.
A Cursed Shadow opens up with a beautiful chamber style orchestral section. This is combined by a rich acoustic baby grand piano carry the flow in this intro track
Black Blood starts with a symphonic black metal style section. This contains some heavy rhythm work with double drum blast beats in harmony with a heavy bottom on the bass. It is soon quickly followed up by a male death metal vocal. At the :31 mark Anae’s operatic vocal comes into play and she is eloquent with it. About the 1:15 mark the track goes through a series of rapid fire time signatures. Throughout the rest of this track there are sharp multiple time signatures and progressions in harmony with a male clean and death growl and female operatic vocal.
Eleventh Hour rips right into a fast and fierce rapid fire thrash rhythm section with heavy dark crunchy blast beats. The is followed in harmony by a clean nice lead guitar. Soon the vocals kick in and the track takes many very sharp hooks and time signature changes. The vocals are orchestrated in a manner where it sounds like a melodic dialouge between three people. About the 2:15 mark the track takes a very unusual and wicked break into a jazz progression before taking off in the dark heavier signatures. 3:45 mark it takes another break where the female vocal is overdubbed interchanging in and out of different octaves.
Time To Win, Time To Cry begins with a heavy piano before the male clean vocal comes in. About :50 mark Time To Win, Time To Cry ascends with a nice hard rhythm section. At the 1:00 mark there is a slight acoustical section before returning back to the heavier dark prog metal. The double bass drum blast beats are the total backbone all the way through the track. This track takes on a lot of thrash metal elements as well. At the 3:40 mark there is a cool guitar solo.
No More starts out with a sound element like a music box followed by a keyboard solo. At the :40mark the track explodes. There is definitely a pattern forming on Foreshadow where the tracks start of with subtle soft sections before giving wa to a heavy wall of rhythm sections, time signatures and progressions. At the 3:00 mark there is some nice sharp breaks in and out. The clean male vocal towards the end is more in the vein of a power metal vocal.
Crimson Conspiracy starts with a soft gentle piano in harmony with a great rhythm core. This goes on for about 1:00 mark before the track starts ascending to the dark progressive progressions. Crimson Conspiracy contains a lot of various breaks and sharp hooks in progression scales. About the 2:00 mark it drops to a heavy bottom bass guitar section in harmony with the melodic operatic vocal. This track is very unpredictable as to what progression or hook is coming next due to the sharp transitions.
The Falling Song opens with a gentle piano in harmony with the opera vocal. It has a heavy chamber progression as if it is part and parcel to a stage play opera. The piano serves as the definite backbone here. If there is a ballad on Foreshadow than The Falling Song is it.
Draconian Wind starts out with a blistering heavy distorted rhythm section. This is followed by a brief heavy bass bottom again in harmony with a clean vocal. Draconian Wind definitely takes more neo classical progressive metal elements. About the 2:22 mark the track has a heavily bass induced rhythm section. The keyboards on this one are much more out front than developing a atmospheric progression.
Echoes Of Time serves a a thunderous drum crashing transition before Fight For Revenge.
Fight For Revenge begins with a brutal rhythmic assault on the listening experience. The time progressions are blistering in and out in a ebb and flow manner. Fight For Revenge is heavily laden with epic progressions featuring the entire sum of the instrumental parts where each are very present and accentuated within the track.
Demon’s Run reminds me of Nightwish elements between Century Child to Once. There are several twists and turns in this track. Meanwhile the track maintains a continuity in its complexity. The beauty and beast, male death growl and female operatic are present in the middle of Demon’sRun. About the 2:45 mark it takes on elements much like a symphony orchestra. The keyboard creates a heavy eerie dark portion towards the end.
Foreshadow the title track to the album opens with a symphony orchestral element in harmony with a choir style vocal. At the 1:00 mark the track hammers down and a heavy rhythm section quickly takes the track into another progressive portion. Towards the middle the rhythm section takes on some galloping elements as if Iron Maiden where backed by a symphony. The guitar solos are everywhere on this track. The track switches sharply between the heavy rhythm backbone to the guitar solos. The end goes out with a verse choral section.
You need not to worry Andra’s Foreshadow is not another clone of say Nightwish or Epica. If you really listen Andra have developed their own quality sound. The band focuses more on darker more developed progressive elements and only uses the typical neo classical metal elements seldom. Andra have created a well written masterpiece. I anticipate Andra being on festivals such as FlightOf The Valkeries and Female Metal Voices Festival. A band like Andra will assure the future and validity of dark progressive metal for years to come. I give this a 4/5 score.
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