I'm a Xandria fan, legitimately. I thought their last album was okay it had some good tunes, one before that quite good, but this one just doesn't do it for me. Some of the songs are really.... really tacky to the point where I had to stop what I was doing and advance to the next song because of the cheese... Ship of Doom anyone? It sounds like they're attempting a Pirates Of The Caribbean soundtrack, only without anything that really sticks.

Written by ScottyM on 27.01.2017 at 16:35

Ship of Doom anyone? It sounds like they're attempting a Pirates Of The Caribbean soundtrack, only without anything that really sticks.

Yeah, Nightwish and other bands have also gone that direction already. It seems like it's the logical "evolution" of Symphonic Metal... so I'll keep listening to the old stuff for the time being.

Written by mariano on 27.01.2017 at 17:50

Written by ScottyM on 27.01.2017 at 16:35

Ship of Doom anyone? It sounds like they're attempting a Pirates Of The Caribbean soundtrack, only without anything that really sticks.

Yeah, Nightwish and other bands have also gone that direction already. It seems like it's the logical "evolution" of Symphonic Metal... so I'll keep listening to the old stuff for the time being.

I'm not particularly upset about the evolution of Symphonic Metal, as I still enjoy Nightwish with all the changes and adaptations they've made in the last several years considering the vast swaths of changes they've made with vocalists. My point is just that this album is disappointingly mediocre for a fan to listen to, given how they've displayed such potential in the past. Dianne is more than capable of blowing our hair back, her classically trained vocals are nothing short of beautiful (and to be frank, the best part of this album/band), but the song-writing is just downright boring to listen to in this album. I was hoping for so much more from them. This is wasted potential.

It's not a bad album. Sacrificium was a bit better, imho. The main problem I'm having with this album is that it's a blatant copy of Nightwish. Not only in terms of music but also thematically and conceptually. Theater Of Dimensions is sort of Imaginaerum and Endless Forms Most Beautiful crossover.

Sure, most of their earlier songs were also inspired by Nightwish one way or another. But resemblance here is just spooky. When listening to this album, I can literally pinpoint parts that were directly taken from this or that Nightwish song. Kind of disturbs me.

Neverworld's End, Sacrifcium were those two albums where Xandria seemed like they have found the direction of the band. Of course, it's symphonic metal and they are not alone, which means it's hard to come up with something really new in this genre, but they got into a direction where musically they could have a stable place. This album seems to move away from the right path, becoming the ultimate Nightwish gimmick (even with the cover art). Disappointed.

Such an inconsistent album. "Call Of Destiny" is pretty good, and I can understand its choice as a video track. "Forsaken Love" and even "Queen Of Hearts Reborn" have some nice vocal melodies. The rest of the album... it's so messy in its approach. Dianne's skill is not the issue, but it's the songwriting and the guitarwork for me that often too predictable, but also like it tries to be heavy at exactly the wrong times, and without memorable melodies. A song like "Ship Of Doom" has these beautiful moments of Dianne singing her operatic parts, but then these insipid "1,2,3,4" parts that make me cringe are shoved in there . Concepts like "We Are Murderers" contradict with Dianne's natural voice (I can't take it seriously), and decidedly using thick, heavy guitars, like at the end of this song, just fly too far away from remaining cohesive with her as a vocalist. Perhaps an album of ballads, like "Dark Night Of The Soul" would have been the way to go?

I think the album is fascinating. Certainly Dianne is using her voice more here than Sacrificium. I think it's also better than the previous one in lyrics and music "as a whole".
A step in the right direction for Xandria indeed. Lyrics are well constructed and the title song is very unique in the story it tells. Great job!

I really liked it. probably more than their last album. Better use of vocals and their guitars have been improving since their last few albums. my fav of 2017 so far

Am enjoying this tremendously. Much better than Sacrificium which only had 1 good song. This sounds more of a mix between their old material and newer one.

In terms of orchestral arrangement and use of choir, this album is much better than the last album. The symphony messed up in their last album. Compositions in orchestra are possibly influenced by Hans Zimmer's work. I'm pretty sure blending celtic instrument with symphony is inspired by James Horner's works. This also leads to some issues of originality. Originality is an obvious loopholes in the last album, some compositions sounds similar to Horner's Braveheart scoring. The originality doesn't really act better in this album. It reminds me a bit of Epica and Ramin Djawadi.

The album flows really well and there's no doubt these people are immensely talented. Sometimes it's a bit on the cheesy side (especially in the closing track) but hey, it wouldn't be symphonic metal without some cheese. I'll be spinning this for quite a while!

For me this is the best album after Lisa left the band. For your information, I like "Ravenheart" and "Salome"... The last 2 albums are indeed good albums with high quality of symphonic sound. But I wasn't satifsfied with it because oriental sound and catchy melody (I believed Xandria's originality) can not be heard. With this album they've got it back.

Revisiting all Xandria's discography and I always get the feeling I'm listening to some kind of a Nightwish's Imaginaerum outtakes compilation Xandria unsuccessfully tried to make their own when I come to this album

Plus major Epica passages, too. Originality? Where had it gone with these guys? Any news from a new one from them? There's a lot of potential, but they quite didn't find their very own place, yet.