In very few cases do a band's concept, image and musical guideline melt into one magic whole as with
Lost Horizon. After their fairly good debut they are back with a real blast of a Power Metal album. What bothers me writing this review is that main songwriter and guitarist Wojtek Lisicki (the other guitarist being Fredrik Olsson) has just left the band; hope he'll be back someday.
Well on to the album. At first I had to get into the band's playing style which is a pretty special one consisting of bombastic, fast, melodic and symphonic Power Metal with high tone vocals and a lot of variation in all instruments.
The band's concept and lyrical universe is very much concentrated on positive energies, finding the good powers in yourself, seeking truth and eternal wisdom and living your life with honesty, self-awareness and the power of will. One of the great things with this album is that when you listen to the songs, these themes seem like the only ones that would give the powerful songs the right kind of life. Overall I find the lyrics fantastic and very relatable.
The album has 6 "normal" songs with vocal parts and 3 instrumentals to offer.
Pure is a up-tempo track with some stunning vocals from Daniel Heiman, I'm not a moment in doubt that this man has one of the absolute strongest voices in Metal, people that has heard
Lost Horizon will probably agree with me on this statement, he simply screams like a madman, full of emotion and an extremely high level of technical flair involved.
Well back to the song, which is driven by a powerful lead melody that's very catchy, the super tight drums blasts away and the heavy rhythm guitar delivers tons of depth to this smasher.
The keyboard (or synthesizer) from Attila Publik is working firstly as a perfect background element and secondly as a more central melody making instrument. This aspect runs trough more or less the whole album, and I must admit that the keyboard elements are truly outstanding in both composition and accomplishment.
Lost In The Depths Of Me starts off bombastically with some high keyboard tunes and powerful drums; soon we are treated with a pure monster riff that quickly is backed up by a grooving rhythm section with a very tight bass.
Its very hard to describe this song because it has so many passages and different styles, it runs in at nearly 9 minutes and just let me say it's phenomenal, a song full of deep emotions of despair and the power to fight on. The pace is changing all the time and great melodies coming from both guitar and keyboard are delivered in great style.
In the song
Again The Fire Will Burn we find the albums least well working track (not taking into account the instrumental ones). It simply hasn't the same intense feeling and fantastic musical content as the other "normal" tracks. The huge keyboard arrangements are wonderful but the chorus is a bit simple and the flow of the track comes way short in drama when compared with the rest of the tracks. To be fair we are not talking anything near a bad song, the guitar leads are very melodic and overall this is song that lies in the better end of the word OK.
Next up is a short instrumental called
The Song Of Earth; it creates a great relaxed atmosphere through the great keys.
Cry Of A Restless Soul has developed into my favourite on this album and has stepped into my all time favourite songs list (circling around in my head).
It starts of with full strength and then fades into a calm epic vocal part with fantastic underlying keyboard. This 8-minute genius song has fantastic up-tempo passages with glowing rhythm guitar, catchy riffs and some of the best drumming I have ever heard, coming from Christian Nyquist and being extremely powerful and detailed. The vocal parts are mind-blowing and also lyrically the song rules, very personal and full of strength. A clear highlight is when the words
Will Is The Power are shouted out with full force and the song blasts away afterwards. In short everything about this song is perfect and its moments like this when you really hear and feel the magic that Heavy Metal can bring to you personally.
Think Not Forever is another marvellous song with a fantastic guitar solo, and a catchy central chorus. A mid-tempo song with a solid rhythm section and many great details along the way.
Again it's worth noticing the stunning keyboard parts, it just creates a magical atmosphere and it fits perfectly.
Highlander (The One) is a long epic track with lots of exciting passages. Strong and dramatic vocal parts, hymn-like keyboard melodies, fantastic and technical drums, central bass passages by Martin Furängen with lots of depth, and an amazing guitar lead melody, supported by a powerful rhythm section are some of many highlights. Even though the connection between the different parts work very well, I still seem to think that it could have developed even more dramatically if the instrumental parts were incorporated with the vocals in a more intense way, but this is a minor detail, bottom line is that this track rules.
One aspect of the album I find a bit odd is the lengthily instrumental intro and especially outro which are without much movement and relies on rather quiet keyboard tunes. Its not making the album worse but not better either, one more full length song in the same quality as the majority of the above mentioned ones would certainly have been something I would have appreciated a lot more.
A big part in the success of this album is the talent of the musicians. These guys deliver a performance worth remembering in all aspects. I would have liked the bass to have been a bit more involved than it is, but this is detail and it nevertheless gives the songs a powerful underlying foundation.
The production is also of importance and this is a big step forward when comparing with their debut. The bombastic drums sound phenomenal, the guitars tight, the keys are at times a bit too dominant but overall I very much like the result, which is crystal clear without lacking any depth at all.
This is a beautiful combination of melody, technicality, emotionalism and pure power.
Written by
Tommy Wednesday, September 3, 2003
Show all reviews by TommyRatingsTommy: 8.5/10Members: 9.25/10 - Average of 2 ratings.
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 | Steen (Staff)
Rating: 9.5/10
They have done it again.
Lost Horizon have delivered a magnificent feast of powerful, ... · Read more · |
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