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Black Knight Symfonia - Heavenly Chaos review



Reviewer:
7.2

1 user:
7
Band: Black Knight Symfonia
Album: Heavenly Chaos
Release date: 2009


01. Glorification Of The Dead
02. Dark Era
03. Chevalier Noir
04. Dragonland
05. Emerald Kingdom
06. Voyage Initiatique
07. Eternal Life
08. Akasha
09. Hell On Earth
10. Despair
11. Eternal Life [instrumental version] [bonus]
12. Dragonland [orchestral version] [bonus]

Dear all, I wish to tell you that you have been invited to take part in a dark epic trip through a musical world of a new group called Black Knight Symfonia who invite you there straight from their castles in the Principality of Monaco. Their first album Heavenly Chaos is here to offer you a glimpse of these landscapes.

The style of the band is rather colourful and bold, treading on the fields of symphonic metal with some side-taste of progressiveness out there. Those who know the symphonic metal band Aesma Daeva will surely be interested in Black Knight Symfonia as well. The album seems to be a conceptual one with the songs concerning a story taking place in the Emerald Kingdom which is being threatened by the forces of chaos plus the character of Black Knight appearing in the story. The tale will unfold in front of the audience as they get deeper into the flow of the album.

As it is with lots of symphonic bands, this ensemble, too, is female fronted, even more, two ladies are doing a very good job at the vocal section. The main stress is on the beautiful lyrical soprano vocals by Arya supported by the expressive and passionate heavy-rock singing of Nymphadora. The instrumental side is entirely taken care of by Saga who performs on all the instruments (except drums) and also provides the extreme metal vocals with some clean singing as well. Thus I would say the strongest side of the album is this very nicely sounding blend of vocals, both operatic and clean female singing plus male vocals. The instrumental side has also some very nice melodies in it, once again, bringing me memories of the grand work by Aesma Daeva. It is impossible to go on without mentioning what could be a potential weak point. The album reaches the audiences more or less as a longer piece of operatic work without the necessary "breathing" pauses. The rather thick texture of the music itself may be of good quality but might appear less catchy to some people which makes it a bit hard to follow during the first listen as the audience would be somewhat tired during the last part of the album.

Now about the songs which best represent the album's style and the good work of the band members. The introduction along with the second track "Dark Era" are a wonderful showcase of the potential this band has. Other fine songs of the album are "Dragonland", "Emerald Kingdom" and "Eternal Life". Also noteworthy are the beautiful French language arias where the lead vocalist enchants the audience with her fine classical singing. This is an album you might want to accompany you while playing some epic adventure game. This symphonic metal act can handle many colours in music and I really hope they will reach ripeness with every future release they make.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 9
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 8
Production: 8

Written by Ernis | 29.01.2010




Comments

Comments: 3   Visited by: 68 users
29.01.2010 - 16:49
BudDa

Nice review. Its the first time am hearing about them. I have checked out their myspace page and the video/song of 'Emerald Kingdom'. Its kind of a mix bag for me coz at one hand you have 3 vocalists who sing well. The mixture of clean-female, clean-male, soprano and extreme male vocals blend well in the aforementioned track.

On the other hand, however, am thinking they run a risk of telling too many lengthy stories and playing less music and hence a lengthy album. One that would require the discipline to sit through the entire 10 songs in order to appreciate. I hope they can hold my attention for that long..
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Freeze! Step away from the hubris.
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29.01.2010 - 17:43
Ag Fox
Angel No More
Does that mean there are plenty of spoken passages?
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loves 小巫
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29.01.2010 - 20:28
Rating: 7
Ernis
狼獾
Written by Ag Fox on 29.01.2010 at 17:43

Does that mean there are plenty of spoken passages?

No... only one maybe but I don't know if it qualifies...
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