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Review:
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This is the second album from the French symphonic
speedsters which has the assistance of Fairyland mainman
and keyboard maestro Phil Giordana who supplies a wealth
of orchestral and choral arrangements. French speedy symphonic
metal has a unique lightness of touch, the double peddling
is used sparingly and it tends to flutter rather than batter.
Added to this is the delicious Flora Spinelli who has a
lovely light folky Mary Hopkins type voice that floats above
the assemblage, much better than having some hairy bloke
shrieking. It has all the ingredients you look for, massed
choirs and sing-along anthems, stirring music to wave your
sword along to, catchy melodies, excellent musicianship,
and loads of variety from folk to classical to rock to headbanging.
Every song is a wonderful mix of all these ingredients,
but I must mention ‘Angels of the Last Hope’ which contains
gorgeous instrumentation and sumptuous melodies and the
delightful ‘We Will Go’, both of which have a touch of the
Mike Oldfields about them. It is nice to see the guitarists
using a variety of sounds, so often the crunch button appears
to be superglued down. This music would be difficult enough
to play at normal tempos, goodness knows how they manage
it at this pace, my fingers would end up in a knot. It must
have taken a mind boggling number of hours to write, arrange
and record this beautifully and lovingly produced album.
This would make an excellent introduction to those of you
new to speedy symphonic metal, being lighter, more reasonably
paced and melodic than many of their peers. For those, like
me, who are used to the pace and are already converted,
this is an essential purchase, easily available through
their Myspace site http://www.myspace.com/kerionquest
, a rousing 9 out of 10.
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