I discovered
Morifade for the first time when I witnessed them doing a great live performance at the small
Motala Metal festival in Sweden, and their Power Metal caught my attention from the beginning.
Though their first mcd (
Across The Starlit Sky) left a bit to wish for concerning songwriting and featured a singer with a very soft voice, it showed potential for the future!
Possesion Of Power the band's first full-length album offered some very catchy hooklines, good melodies and a new singer, Stefan Petersson, who's voice had some more edge and was even more high-pitched than his predecessor's. The symphonic elements also came into focus. It was a very good album, so
Imaginarium was something I was looking forward to.
The album starts off with
Lost Within A Shade, a nice opener with it's rythmic base/fundament and catchy chorus. There's a nice play between the main vocals and background singing, the main riff has a strong 80's feeling to it and the keyboard provides the symphonic undertone. Never the less, the song is just standard, due to the fact, that it never really evolves, never "grows" the way it could have. But not a bad song. The lyrics deal with drug abuse and the illusions that follow.
Escape follows, and I can't pinpoint exactly what I miss in this song, but it must be some more "drive" somehow. We're offered some temposhifts, and the different elements, keyboard, choir, guitar play together well too, but maybe the song relies just that little too much on the groundstructure, and it never really gets to the point where it gets
really interesting..!
Nevermore is introduced with some classic piano and then breaks into a very rythmic groundstructure that is kept for the rest of the song. It has some kind of Egyptic feeling which I love! The structure of this song is very good and even with it's 7:48 minutes of playing time it doesn't seem too long.
Dark Images and
In Martyria must be characterized as the hits of the album, meaning that these are the songs that gets stuck in your head first!
Dark Images stars off with a rather Maiden-like riff, then slows down and kicks into the very catchy, rythmic chorus. There´s some nice keyboardwork as well as hard-hitting drumming to be found on this one!
The main keyboardriff takes us to
In Matyria a very happy-happy-power-metal sounding song, which reminds me a lot about
Freedom Call and older
Helloween. Very speedy and definitely the catchiest song on the record!
I'm sorry to say so, but to me it seems like
Revive For Awile is only there because an album like this have to have a ballad. It's so standard, it almost hurts! A very simple, sugarsweet melody, crowned with vocals that sound very suffering. The obligatory acoustic guitar is there as well.
In
The Secrecy we get a very good example of the way the band uses the choir to duel with the lead vocalist, sort of like a duet. I love this way of combining these two elements! The song offers a little temposhift when the drums beats a little faster around the chorus but the overall structure of the song is a little predictable.
The start of
Reborn is strongly
Stratovarius-like, mainly due to the keyboard and this continues in some way though the song is far from complex or as symphonic as
Stratovarius.
Whispering Voices ends the album. It starts off pretty speedy and that's something I miss on the album in general! Then it changes completely and gets slower. The arrangements on this song is very good and it's a worthy ending to Imaginarium!
Overall, the album is a piece of good, melodic Power Metal with some symphonic elements and pretty well written songs. Unfortunately, the production leaves something to wish for, and a better one would surely do
Morifade good! But when it all comes down the line, it's about the songs and
Morifade surely deliver some cool tunes, with nice melodies, catchy choruses and the music is well performed. That said, not all songs live up to the standard from the last record, which I must admit I still like the best. Some songs like
Nevermore and
Dark Images are really good, and overall there are more good songs than bad on the album. Too bad that some songs seem like fillers and gets too predictable.
I would also like to hear the singer use more of his voice register as the high-pitched singing gets a little too predictable for a whole record.
I would like to hear some more guitar solos....can't have a Metal record without lots of these, can you?
The keyboard is very well used, which means it provides the symphonic and very melodic feeling in the music, but without being overused as certain other bands obviously feel they have to. Actually I find that this is the case with all the instruments in general; they are used wisely and nothing seems out of place.
I could have wanted some more speed and some of the songs simply miss the "drive" and wildness that's a trademark of Metal!
Nevertheless Imaginarium has many good songs and a pretty fit band to offer, so the general impression is positive.
Written by
Nina Tuesday, September 16, 2003
Show all reviews by NinaRatingsNina: 6/10Members: No members have rated this album yet.
This article has been shown 3321 times. Go to the
complete list.
