Just one warning before I start (rambling): this album has been a totally out-of-the-blue discovery for me lately, and the huge impression it’s made on me is atleast half due to of how much I did not expect it to be such a pretty, good gem. But that’s what it honestly turned out to be, after just one listening already. Which alone should tell pretty much of how much I liked it. But since that’s not the subject matter, let’s try and put the good impressions I got into words.
We could start from the labels. Not the best starting point possible, and that’s exactly the point. Now, the French combo is tagged as “power melodic” pretty much anywhere. And as it often happens with such descriptions, that’s not far from true. Yet of course it needs some explanation.
These guys sure play fast; so the “speed” label is certainly not out of place. The choirs and choruses do pay due to the german power inheritance these guys bring along – which is also made pretty blatant with Helloween‘s Eagle Fly Free classic cover at the end of the album.
And the melody, she’s to be heard throughout the whole album. Which brings us straight to the core of this work’s brilliancy: the hard-to-find ability to merge blasting rhytms with an almost neoclassical vein, reminiscent of how Symphony X master their own songwriting — and to have it clear for good, for this is important: the similiraty is to be found in how the two acts put different styles together; Alkemyst are miles far from being flimsy copycats.
The album’s opener, The Beast Within, could be seen as a five minute long example of what i’m talking about here. It already contains all the elements i mentioned, that keep re-emerging as the melodies unfold. All in all, we’re dealing with an excellent example of the never-enough praised ability of combining catchy rythms and good melodies together. When you can do that, and keep it polished in the mixing process, a shiny outcome is around the corner.
And this is indeed the case. From the epic, powerish grandeur of the short Gran Illusion, to the nice ballad Everlasting Farewells; to the prog-prone title track and the semi-ballad Restless Show (the two true stand outs of the album) – you will find yourselves caught in a bombastic maze of greatly conceived and very well played music. If there’s one way to marry power music of the proudest tradition (which is to say, that of the good old German school) to the odd, curvy lines typical to prog, these guys Alkemyst seem to have found it. and they master it with quite some confidence, too.
THUS SPAKE THE CENNSOR: I’ve heard far enough of last year’s releases to count this one within the very best. Is this still due to the fact I’ve discovered it only just recently? I don’t think so. I think it has more to do with the fact these guys seem to be able to do what Symphony X (enough said) do, but their own way. Which is to say, much more powerish and lots less baroquesque. But also almost as perfect.7,5/10
