Lunatica - The Edge Of Infinity
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Introduction |
| Genre | Symphonic Metal/Rock |
Andrea Dätwyler
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Vocals
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| Tracks | 11 |
Andy Leuenberger
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Guitar
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| Runningtime | 54 Min. |
Sandro D'Incau
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Guitar
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| Label | Frontiers Records |
Emilio MG Barrantes
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Bass
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| Release | 25 Aug. 2006 |
Ronny Wolf
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Drums
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| Country | Switzerland |
Alex Seiberl
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Keyboards
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| Similar artists | Within Temptation, Evanescence, Edenbridge | ||
If I was mean I could say that Lunatica is the Swiss contribution to the ever flowing stream of Nightwish copycats. But since the sun is shining and my mood is on top I will leave my sarcasm behind for now. Even if Lunatica brings nothing new to the scene they are extremely capable of what they are doing and after repeatedly listening to their music for a while I have actually discovered that they have an own identity despite the fact that they sound like a lot of other bands.
The Edge Of Infinity is their third album and since their previous album, entitled Fables & Dreams, was very well received Frontiers Records has labelled their new offering as a priority release. This album is, as also the case was with Fables & Dreams, produced by Sascha Paeth and Miro and this should give you a hint of what kind of sonic landscapes we are talking about; melodic symphonic metal that is catchy and quite majestic. This album however has another face since a couple of tracks lean towards the superficial pop/rock that nowadays is extremely common on the commercial radio stations. When I later read the press release I also found out that Who You Are is written by the Swedish team Falk/Thott who earlier has written songs for acts like Westlife, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Ana Johansson. This track has all the possibilities in becoming a hit but to me it's a song that gives me nothing and destroys the natural flow of the album. This easily digested type of music can also be found on a few more tracks and that is a pity because when they concentrate on what I think they do best they are just as good the elite of their genre.
After the usual intro with spoken words from the legendary Dieter Meier (Yello) the album kickstarts with the majestic title track; pompous and melodic to the bone with Andrea's great vocals on top of that. Her voice might not be anything spectacular but she definitely has charisma and confidence which is ever so important. Up next is the great Sons Of The Wind that both sound- and quality wise is quite similar to its predecessor. The earlier mentioned Who You Are destroys the flow simply because it feels more calculated than from the heart so to speak but on the second half Together and Words Unleashed almost makes up for this. I have returned to these tracks again and again the last week just because of their splendour. Symphonic metal at its best if you ask me! The 9 minute closer EmOcean must also be mentioned; melodic, diverse and epic. On my promotional copy there is a yet another version of this song included with Oliver Hartmann as a guest vocalist and those of you who have heard him before won't be surprised when I tell you that he once again has done a fantastic job.
Sadly I must say that the aim for massive airplay on the
radio reduced my score with at least one chalice in the end. The lion
part of the album is great symphonic melodic metal and hopefully they
will focus on that the entire album the next time but since Who You
Are is smelling big hit all over I'm not so sure that will happen…
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Production
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Vocals
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Compositions
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8,5 |
8 |
7 |
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Summary
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7 chalices of 10 - Hawk |
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