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Kiske/Somerville - City Of Heroes

Published April 15 2015


*
=Staff's pick

City Of Heroes*
Walk On Water
Rising Up
Salvation
Lights Out*
Breaking Neptune*
Ocean Of Tears
Open Your Eyes
Last Goodbye
After The Night Is Over
Run With A Dream
Right Now


Genre Melodic Metal
Michael Kiske
Vocals
Tracks 12
Amanda Somerville
Vocals
Running time 57 Min.
Magnus Karlsson
Guitar
Label Frontiers Records
Mat Sinner
Bass
Release April 17, 2015
Veronika Lukešová
Drums
Country Germany/USA/Sweden/Czech R.
Magnus Karlsson
Keyboard
Producer Mat Sinner
Similar artists ---

City Of Heroes is Kiske/Somerville's second installment after their eponymous 2010 effort, although actually this project could be seen more as a foursome plus additional drummer, since Magnus Karlsson and Mat Sinner have participated heavily on these releases as well. The two last-mentioned, who both normally also works regularly in the heavy/power metal outfit Primal Fear, writes massive amounts of music to different constellations, not necessarily together though, and a few basics of the melodies are starting to get rather recognizable to me.

Since they have recorded guitars/keyboards and bass respectively and since the bass player has produced this record as well, they contribute even more to the similarities of past efforts and this will probably escalate in the future. I wouldn't go as far as to say that they plagiarize themselves, but since I've heard so many of their achievements in the past, I'm starting to kind of relive the moment a little. The biggest similarities are undoubtedly present in the speedier songs and to some extent in the mid-tempo tracks and in these two sections the drumming rhythms are specifically resemblant in terms of its rolling appearance.

As a package, this album contains mostly melodic metal, but divided, it's really split up in 3 fairly equally large pieces; up-tempo and mid-tempo tracks and of course we have some heart breaking ballads when this duo of singers is present. To put the vocals of Michael Kiske and Amanda Somerville on top of the music seems like the easiest thing to do in the whole process. The vocal efforts of the two singers involved are unsurprisingly really harmonious and agreeable to listen to, even if I miss a little bit of that extra charisma and kick-ass attitude this time around.

Despite my somewhat negative words above, this is unquestionably a job well done and a pleasant experience at the end of the day. We get catchy songs with lots of arresting stuff and good melodies, and even though I maybe can't find those absolute killers that I want to praise to absurdity, the songs still have a capability to come out captivating. Consequently, I absolutely think that this platter, to a large extent, is a really solid effort which in the end deserves a rating of 7 chalices.

Performance
Originality
Production
Vocals
Songwriting

7

4

7

8

7

 
Summary



7 chalices of 10 - Tobbe


Related links:

www.frontiers.it