No idea what Almah means, but it sounds good
Paul Lawrence | Australia | 05/21/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Intrigued as to what Edu would get up to in a solo setting I was keen to get this album and it ain't half bad at all. Surrounding himself with a band of the calibre of Emppu Vourinen (Nightwish), Lauri Porra (Stratovarius) and Casey Grillo (Kamelot) has helped matters tremendously. It's a pity that such a meeting of musicians couldn't be a proper band but then we'd probably lose the tremendous output of their 'day job' careers.
Anyway, the album starts off with a heavy hitter in King where we see Edu really belting out in a more mid range way than he normally gets an opportunity to, in fact some of this song is approaching industrial with it's wall of sound battering with a roaring musical romp complementing a gymnastic vocal performance from the man himself. This lead cut is probably the stang out rocker of the album and they were absolutely right to smack it at the front of the disc.
The following track, Take Back Your Spell, is another song in the same heavy vein, another wall of sound assault and it's surprising but this and the first cut are actually heavier than most anything on an actual Angra album. In fact they are actually better in many respects not solely because of their heft but also due to their consistent attacks - sort of a slightly simplified Angra and to me Angra are a band that are often better when they do simplify things a bit and just get on with it rather than trying to have several different shades in the same song.
The rest of the album flows quite nicely with a judicious blend of rockers and ballads with some nice guitar work on a number of tunes somewhat reminiscent in places of Emppus work on his own side project band Brother Firetribe (does the man ever sleep?). In fact the ballds, rather than annoying the listener like they could potentially do actually allow you to appreciate the vocal styling of Edu. And whereas on an Angra album they would probably irritate me, wanting the band to roar like we all know they can, on a solo album they form part of the richness of the experience and reward the listener for wanting to explore the psyche of the singer of such a valued band.
Musically there are some interesting parts - such as the melding of almost whimsical keyboad styling and insistent guitar riffs on Children of Lies and the way the vocal lines meld and separate alternately with the guitar on Break All the Welds.
Production on this album was done by Edu himself (Amazon credits someone else - but on the booklet for the album it says Edu did it) and Edu also contributes all the acoustic guitar and some of the electic guitar. A swag of guests helped out on various instruments such as piano and violin and it should be mentioned that a few odd bits of guitar were done by other guest musicians - not every solo is by Emppu. All up the sound is good and the mid paced tracks such as Golden Empire breath relatively well - not every tiny nook and cranny is filled with sound.
This limited edition has two bonus tracks in the form of The Sign of Glory and Supermind though the booklet does not have lyrics for them as it does for all the other tunes. They aren't bad numbers either, my preference being for Supermind. So if you can get this version with the extra tracks for around the same price as the average joe version then obviously go for that extra bit of value for money.
Only little quibble with this quality and dependable album would be a common one with this sort of album - the love of the digipack. Why bands bother I'll never know - the cardboard scuffs up and the artwork gets damaged and if your plastic tray gets damaged you can't replace it, which is so easy to do with normal jewel case packaging.
Not wall to wall power metal then though there is plenty of it to around and a range of melloweer mid and slow tempo cuts. Angra fans really need this, power metal fans should approach it with confidence especially lovers of Nightwish (it's far less ornate than that though) and even Brother Firetribe, not to mention all the Kamelot and Stratovarius junkies out there. Dig in."
Track Listings (13) - Disc #1