TRACKLIST:
1.Intro
2.Lost Eternity
3.Nomadic Life
4.Clan of Saluation
5.Point of no Return
6.Today's Tuesday
7.Eden Again
8.Hands Tied Up
9.Final Real
10.Flesh and Light
11.Golden Gate
12.Outro
First off,I'm going to mention right out of the gate that I am no melodic metal fan.I've always stayed clear of cheese power metal acts,even though I do embrace speed metal bands with epic elements in the likes of Stratovarius and earlier Sonata Arctica.The fact that Pandea cite influences as detached from each other as Helloween and Bullet for My Valentine left me quite a little confused,and I have absolutely no idea what's lying ahead.The one guiding light I can actually put my finger on is the presence of the Rage guitarist on guest guitars and I have to admit I do have a little penchant for Rage. This is being described as a heavy metal opera,which leads me to believe I can expect a full-on Nightwish epicness,or a disastrous fanfare of a musical rendition of a D&D game.I'm going to hope it is the former
. TRACK BY TRACK ANALYSIS
1.Intro
I never focus on intros.To me the actual embodiment of a band's entity can only be pictured by the actual tracks.I don't over-analyze what's in between.
2.Lost Eternity
I have to admit I am pleasantly surprised by the absolute lack of MIDI keyboards and overused spoken parts in this song.By ''metal opera'' I had pictured this as an album that mostly focuses on these elements with the only intention of telling a story rather than rocking out and using wall to wall guitars. I was partly wrong.This tune is quite the charger.I can put my finger on quite some hooks within the short lenght of this track,and the guitars are fairly heavy and catchy.I definitely hear the wink to Helloween in the chorus,and the solo is definitely paving the way for quite a rich album when it comes to riffage.I'd be lying if I said the songwriting manages to break a ton of bricks at this point,but I have strong expectations about the rest of the album since this one track has the feel of a kicker for the beginning of the album rather than masquerading as its peak that will most probably follow this one closely.
3.Nomadic Life
I have been partly let down by this one track for the fact that the true action held therein truly starts at the four-minute mark.Before it hit this part,I had a feeling it was strongly dragging its feet.While I have nothing against vocal-driven metal,it also leaves me with the lasting impression that the music is nothing but its accompaniment and doesn't display its personnality to the forefront,and truthfully,metal should be about taking the front of the stage and rockin' faces off.That is most exactly what is achieved from the moment the solo comes on.It opened the door to a very refreshed powerful guitar sound and upbeat drum rythm that cary on to the very ending of the track along to a brilliant and catchy melody that would've probably easily made it within one of my playlists if the song had unleashed its power all over me for its entire lenght instead of having four minutes worth of content to trim.
4.Clan of Saluation
I have managed to find some strongly positive points stemming from the two previous tracks but I'm afraid this one definitely doesn't achieve anything in my book.I have brought forward the main problem of this band and it is the excessive comfort in vocal-driven music and lack of work on the heavy guitar riffs.For that,and that alone,I wouldn't classify this as heavy metal.This one track is mostly accoustic,and I find the riffage particularly weak.The attempt at saving the track with the soloing bit which falls into a very weird slow-tempo part that seems to be literally thrown into things randomly,definitely fails as the cheesy chorus takes over and leads me to believe this song was probably written by a different band for another project that they should not categorize as a metal outing.Also,the absolutely awkward electronic intro added to the very blatantly computerized and simplistic main riff are doing nothing to give credibility to this song.
5.Point of no Return
This track starting off with about two minutes of ambient music in the background and a narrative made me skip right across its lenght towards what remotely sounded like an actual song.I was left quite mortified at the simplistic main riff and the messy solo that sounded like it was painfully improvized.
I have to admit this is the end of my journey with this record.All of its downpoints,instead of being corrected,show up emphasized as the album's lenght stretches out to no end.I would suggest these guys release an EP with the first two tracks on it and rework their sound with much consideration for heavy guitar riffage if they do want to make it in this particular area of the scene.True power metal to me is about powerful music.This doesn't quite fit into that department.
Rating: 3/10
-Noch
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