Band:	Heliosaga
Album:	Towers In The Distance
Style:	Symphonic power metal
Release date:	August 2014

01. A Tower So Tall
02. Scarlet Sphere
03. Lost
04. Hideaway
05. To Heal All Wounds
06. Memorativa
07. Hunter's Moon
08. Edenscar
09. Luminary
10. All Souls

There might be nothing particularly original about Heliosaga's sound - the warbling enchantress on point, the synth garnishes and background splashes that sound as though they've been painted in - but they pull it off very well, and that makes for a successful debut.

Chelsea Knaack, at first listen, comes off as one of the scores of dime-a-dozen, operatic flower metal singers; yet soon she steps into control with a heady, hypnotic tone that melds beautifully with the melodies. She does not carve herself out a position in the songs, but pours her liquid voice into the cracks and lets it flow through the music. Now, I described this sort of dreamy, light-touch approach as problematic for a power metal band in my Kalidia review, and there are certainly pitfalls to avoid. Knaack, however, performs her role with the kind of spirit and solidity that keeps the band engaging even with her laidback delivery.

Heliosaga stray very little from the stylistic tendencies outlined immediately in "A Tower So Tall," sticking most often to their symphonic high fantasy tales learned at the feet of Nightwish and Sonata Arctica. They might be American (and I did have to look that up, because I could have sworn they were Italian), but the European scene has given them their inspiration. Occasionally, they do toss in some of the darker, battle-hardened thrash elements generally favored by the American school of power metal, which has the potential to make Knaack's grandiloquent delivery and the stable wave of simple synth dressing sound misplaced. Instead, the juxtaposition works to the songs' advantage, and Heliosaga never seem to lose their footing throughout the course of the album.

I don't generally go in for this kind of power metal, but upon first listening to "A Tower So Tall," I was hooked. With such a strong opener and tracks like "Lost" and "To Heal All Wounds" mixed in, Towers In The Distance leaves a very pleasing taste in your ears. They'll even treat you to a lovely ten-minute epic at the end of the album, should you be smart enough to stick around and listen for that long.