Virtuocity - Northern Twilight Symphony
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Spell Of Seduction* |
| Genre | Power Metal |
Peter James Goodman
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Vocals
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| Tracks | 13 |
Jaron Sebastian Raven
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Guitar
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| Runningtime | 65 Min. |
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Guitar
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| Label | Spinefarm |
Tom Joens
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Bass
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| Release | 05 Sept. 2005 |
Joey Edith
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Drums
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| Country | Finland |
Michael Thomas
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Keyboards
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| Similar artists | Stratovarius, Sonata Arctica, Majestic | ||
Time to introduce yet another Neoclassic Power Metal unit hailing from The Land of the Thousand Lakes. Founded by multi-virtuoso guitarist Jaron Sebastian Raven and vocalist Peter James Goodman, Virtuocity return with the follow-up to their debut Secret Visions. Since that album Tom Joens, Michael Thomas and Joey Edith became new workers in the team when Goodman and Raven decided to recruit new members that better met their standards and musical ambitions. And with a new and full line-up, their sophomore album, Northern Light Symphony is done and ready.
The album is unquestionably a very typical Finnish sounding one and a very typical Finnish production with every component we're so used to by now. Crystal clear, highly melodic and also as usual slightly melancholic. But wait a minute here. A Finnish band described like this within the realms of Neoclassic Power Metal of course sends a thought or two towards other bands from the same country. Stratovarius you say?- Sure! Sonata Arctica maybe?- Of course! Celesty?- Some! Nightwish?- A little! So naturally there's nothing really groundbreaking that's up on trial but at least and for once, gladly I must say, there's no falsetto singer holding the vocal-position in Virtuocity, but instead Goodman delivers a very good mid-range performance. His got a very powerful and flawless part that's an almost absolute dead ringer for David DeFeis when he's using his cleaner register (Land of a Thousand Lakes especially) and that's certainly a comparison to be proud of. He also sings very similar to Roland Grapow on his first solo-album and Goodman's therefore a very welcome difference between this unit and the other mentioned bands walking on Finnish ground since the Xerox stamp would have been all over the Virtuocity sheet otherwise.
The keyboards are sounding much like for instance those in Sonata Arctica with a slightly more emphasis on symphonic features; the guitars of Raven bear the Timo Tolkki trademark in many ways and also notes of Yngwie Malmsteen origin are present in his playing style. Despite this skills at hand he still keeps things more basic without trying to squeeze in a thousand tones per second, even though he seems more than capable to do so. The concluding title track is a perfect example of that and that's a feature I very much appreciate. The underlying melancholic epic and fantasy approach have some touches of Celesty's debut release to it and in that context even some Rhapsody touches are lurking around. There's also a strong lean towards the Swedish bands Majestic and Stormwind regarding the keyboards and Neo-classical inputs and also Dionysus regarding the symphonic but it's the Finnish aura that most clearly dominates the sound-frame.
Virtuocity's approach is mostly fast (to hyper-fast) power metal tracks with some more heavy metal mid tempos in between to vary the pace and break the faster pattern. A very strong melodic ore and of course a huge portion of classically inspired compositions are also permeating the whole album and at times Virtoucity aren't stepping that far away from other leading highly melodic bands like Freedom Call and Power Quest in such environments but without the happy metal approach. The guitar interactions of Raven with the keyboard playing by Michael Thomas work splendidly too and throughout the album these two instruments share many strong moments together, both in intros and during the instrumental middle sections of the songs. Many ultra-speedy arpeggios duelling with classic blacks and ivories fingering are present and even though we've heard those musical ideas before, it sounds fresh and brings identity and presence to the songs.
So far so good and Virtuocity certainly deserve the positive aspects I've discussed up to now but there's unfortunately also as usual a more negative flip side to the coin. The crystal clear production and the highly melodic sense make this very digestible but unfortunately also a bit too digestible. Northern Twilight Symphony is just one of those albums that you like instantly and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but as a consequence in this particular case, it's not one of those albums I enjoy for repeated listening. I prefer things to be more of a journey where I can discover things for myself along the way but this is a bit too predictable and feels more like a guided tour where everything is in plain view. You basically know the album after the first listening and that it also contains a total of 13 songs produces a monotone feeling and drags out the one hour listening process a bit too much. Short it down to around 10 tracks and 45-50 minutes instead and try to vary the song-writing a little more in the future is my advice.
Still I must admit that the guys in Virtuocity make good
use of their pickaxes and have chopped out several overall very good
chips from the Neo-classic Finnish melodic metal block. On that arena
this feels very competitive and provides a very professional and mature
metal that in normal doses stills the hunger for this kind of music
quite efficiently. With more albums with the same professional approach
like this, the minor flaws dealt with and some years of further developing
of their sound Virtuocity could very possibly become one of the leading
acts in this genre. Northern Light Symphony lives up its name musically
and sonically and proves that the band has the future ahead instead
of behind and basically it should engage most of you metal farmhands
and maids neck-deep into the Finnish melodic metal well.
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Production
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Vocals
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Compositions
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8 |
8,5 |
7 |
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Summary
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7,5 chalices of 10 - Mat |
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