Kategorie: CD-Reviews | Genre: Metal | Heft: Jahrgang 2014, eclipsed Nr. 165 / 11-2014 | VÖ-Jahr: 2014 | Wertung: 7/10 | Label: Frontiers | Autor: ML
For the first three albums the Swedish guitarist Magnus Karlsson (Primal Fear, Starbreaker) was the musical director and creative director of the Allen-Lande project. He has now passed this job on to former Stratovarius boss Timo Tolkki. Like Karlsson on the first three works, the Finn is now responsible for songwriting and apart from drumming for all instrumentation. Musically this changes surprisingly relatively little, the theme at the meeting of the two singers Jorn Lande (Jorn, Masterplan) and Russell Allen (Symphony X) remains the same. With less flourish than the US-American Allen is used to, and more epic than the Norwegian country does with its other projects, the two melodic heavy metal mini symphonies are written to the body. In this musical environment, Lande often sounds like one of his role models: Ronnie James Dio. Allen is rather responsible for the higher registers. The songs that work best are those where the two voices completely control the action, like the power ballad "Bitter Sweet".
Top track: Bitter Sweet
