This year has been a rather good one for fans of power metal in general: we've had the mighty Epica return with a brilliant album, Nightwish are aiming to start work on their eighth album with the intention of releasing it in early 2015 (so we might be hearing a single from them in December), Kamelot are working on their eleventh studio album, Amaranthe are aiming to release their third album in late 2014, we've had strong returns to form from Gamma Ray, Iron Savior, Edguy, Sonata Arctica, Primal Fear and Freedom Call (to name a few)...and we've still potentially got Blind Guardian's tenth album as well! And, bear in mind, it's not even June yet! AND I've not brought up the new Judas Priest album that should be out in July (Priest aren't power metal, but Painkiller was a huge influence on the genre). If this isn't one of the best years for melodic metal this side of the 2000's, I will be VERY surprised!
So, with so much great power metal this year among the titans of the genre, you'd be forgiven for forgetting about the smaller names in the genre! But worry not, there's been some interesting stuff from the power metal underground: we've had Xandria returning with a fairly good album, HolyHell might be making a return later this year (if the news on their Facebook page about them having nearly finished tracking their second album is accurate), we've had the return of Delain and, now, we've got the return of Finnish symphonic power metal band Amberian Dawn.
...Well, OK, Amberian Dawn haven't exactly been gone anywhere: they've released an album every year since 2008 (aside from in 2011, and even that was a year and four months between the release of their 2010 album End Of Eden and their 2012 album Circus Black, which is still a surprisingly quick album cycle when you consider that most bands will only just have started pre-production for their next album in that same length of time!), so it's not like they'd be hard to forget about if you pay attention! Still, even for a band which has been around under their name since 2006 (they were around before 2006 under the name Atheme One, but I can't confirm how long they were around under that name), it's rather impressive that they're now on their fifth studio album (their 2013 album was technically a self-covers album: it was done to allow fans to hear their new vocalist tackling material from their first four albums): most bands who released their first album in 2006 haven't even got to their fourth yet. Still, being ridiculously productive doesn't mean a thing if all that you're producing is boring or even outright bad, so the question remains: is the single for their upcoming album Magic Forest (due to be released on the 7th of July in the UK) actually any good or have the band been so determined to be productive that they've forgotten about the importance of quality control? Well, let's find out!
If you want to watch the video to this song before reading the rest of my review, here you go! It's an unlisted video, so I can't directly put the video into the article like I would usually prefer to. Hugely disappointed with this, as it makes the label (Napalm Records, if you're curious) seem like they're trying to hide this song from being found and talked about! It's probably nothing like that in the slightest, but, the way I see it, if you're not making a music video able to be found with a direct search on youtube, there has to be a reason...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNs8Z6W7Y8Y
Anyway, putting my paranoia aside, lets look at the song!
Symphonic metal, as a general rule of thumb, tends to be known for being rather bombastic and suitably epic, although this is most likely because the most well known names in the genre (Nightwish, Epica, Therion and Delain) seem to enjoy being bombastic (which probably explains why so many bands seem to sound like Nightwish: they're the most influential band of the symphonic metal scene, despite not actually being the first symphonic metal band. That honour would belong to Therion.). Amberian Dawn, by contrast, don't reach for the epic card on this track, instead preferring to go for a more restrained style that feels a bit more like the ballad or quiet song in an opera as opposed to being the epic closing finale of the same hypothetical opera. On paper, this is quite a good thing, as it lets the arrangements speak for themselves without having to fight against everything else and, as such, opens a lot of possibilities to add subtleties and whatnot that you couldn't get quite as well if the symphonic elements have to aim to be as loud as they can, but I have to say that, in this case, the symphonic elements feel a bit lacking. Don't get me wrong, they are definitely present, but they feel somewhat underwritten, as if they were a mere afterthought in the songwriting process, and you'd be forgiven for barely noticing them. Hugely disappointed by this, as it also makes the rest of the track (the metal elements of the song) look underwritten as well due to it not receiving the support it needs for the whole track to become more than the sum of its parts. Aspiring songwriters, this is why you shouldn't add symphonic elements to a track without taking the time to be sure that it actually supports the song and makes it better, as failing to make the symphonic elements blend with the music and both supports and is supported by the rest of the song will usually result in a song that feels like it hasn't capitalised on the potential it had at best and ruin a perfectly good song at worst. That said, I think that the band DOES still perform the track well and there's enough hooks in the song to make it worth hearing a few times, but none of them stick with you for an especially long time and the whole song feels like there was a lot of wasted potential to it: I can imagine this song would have been a lot better musically had the symphonic elements been better integrated into the song.
So, the music feels like it has a lot of wasted potential, but how does vocalist Capri (birth name Paivi Virkkunen) handle the song? Honestly, pretty well! She can sing in a more classically trained style (not specifically in an operatic way, but in a way that indicates she has a lot of technique behind her singing) and a more pop-influenced singing style (which makes sense: she has released two pop-rock albums (Salaa sinun in 1997 and Kuun morsian in 2001) under her own name!) that makes for quite an interesting listening experience. She manages to sound young and innocent in the verses, but she can also sing the chorus in a way that makes you realise she's not actually a young singer (according to my research, she's 42 years old at the minute and, honestly, that wasn't as far from my actual guess of her age before I did my research on her as you'd expect: I'd assumed around mid-30's, give or take a few years, when she sung in her more mature voice!). I've no idea how she sounds compared to her predecessor, as I've not taken the time to hear her voice for the sake of comparison, but I will say that her voice is definitely very enjoyable. I would understand people saying that Amberian Dawn has basically taken a leaf from Nightwish's book, but I wouldn't say Capri's voice shares a lot in common with Anette's voice beyond Capri's voice having a slightly poppy edge to it that is very easy to notice in Anette's voice. The best comparison to describe her voice (as unfair as this will be, as Capri isn't as good a singer as her) is actually Floor Jansen. Granted, it's still not a flawless comparison (Capri's not as powerful a singer as Floor, for a start), but it's about the closest comparison I can think of at the minute, as I've not really kept up to date with symphonic metal for a while now!
The production...I don't know about this production, to be honest. It's definitely not especially loudly mastered, but this is one of the rare times when my complaint is that the mix seems to be somewhat confused with what it wants to do. The bass isn't too difficult to hear (admittedly, you'll still need to really listen for it, but, once you pick it up, you'll not have too much difficulty with hearing it: would have preferred it a bit louder, but that's personal preference, as I like bass heavy mixes myself!), but the symphonic elements seem to flip between being too quiet and being too overpowering, depending on the point in the song. When it's not Capri's time to sing or the guitars don't need to do a lot, the symphonic elements can be a bit too loud in the mix, but, when either of the two circumstances I've mentioned occur, the symphonic elements tend to be slightly lost underneath the rest of the instruments. It's nice that you don't need to practically have a ability to sense what isn't there to follow the bass and I don't have a huge issue with the mastering on this song, but the symphonic elements feel like they haven't been given the opportunity they need to shine.
So, final thoughts? Aside from some slightly questionable mixing when it comes to the symphonic elements, the song is fine, if slightly frustrating due to how good it COULD have been had the symphonic elements been better integrated into the song and slightly dull due to how the hooks don't stick with you for anywhere near long enough. I wouldn't exactly call this a shining beacon of symphonic metal brilliance, as there's definitely flaws to improve upon, but I can see symphonic metal fans with an acceptance for the less bombastic side of the genre at least enjoying this. If, however, you like your symphonic metal with a lot of bombast (like myself), this song will leave you wanting more, and not necessarily in the kind of way that will have you wanting to pick up Magic Forest when it comes out.
Final Rating: 6 Out Of 10
A fairly enjoyable track that could have done with some stronger hooks, better integration of the symphonic elements of the band's sound into the track and some slightly better mixing. If you're a symphonic metal fan, you should enjoy this, but you'll probably not be won over by it enough to find the band becoming your new favourite symphonic metal band. If you're not into symphonic metal, this song won't change anything, so feel free to give this one a miss.
(Also, interesting bit of trivia for the curious: two of the seven ex-members of Amberian Dawn are likely to be familiar with people who are deeply interested in the metal scene, as they are currently performing in well respected metal bands. Guitarist Kasperi Heikkinen did live guitars with Gamma Ray in 2006 and is currently playing for U.D.O. while bassist Jukka Koskinen is currently part of Wintersun and Cain's Offering!)
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