Allen/Lande - The Great Divide

Published October 25 2014

*=Staff's pick	Come And Dream With Me Down From The Mountain In The Hands Of Time Solid Ground Lady Of Winter* Dream About Tomorrow Hymn For The Fallen* The Great Divide Reaching For The Stars* Bittersweet*

Genre	Melodic/Heavy Metal	Russell Allen/Jørn Lande	Vocals
Tracks	10	Timo Tolkki	Guitar
Running time	50 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Frontiers Records	Timo Tolkki	Bass
Release	11 October 2014	Jami Huovinen	Drums
Country	USA/Norway/Finland	Timo Tolkki	Keyboard
Producer	Timo Tolkki
Similar artists	---

Fourth platter from Russell Allen of Symphony X and Adrenaline Mob, etc., and Jørn Lande, formerly of The Ark, Masterplan and a whole bunch of additional acts. This singer collaboration started back in 2005 with Swedish multi instrumentalist and producer Magnus Karlsson doing the songwriting as well as taking part in the recordings. With Karlsson in the driver's seat on the first three records, the former Stratovarius mastermind Timo Tolkki was now asked to serve this outfit in best possible way.

Naturally there's a new approach and differences in the music when Tolkki has taken control, including him as a producer and him also getting most songwriting credits. From my viewpoint, the Finn has written much better songs in general than what he has done in a really long time. It's pretty clear that his roots are still in some sort of power metal vein, but it's also obvious that this former building block no longer is the most bright shining element, since this record leans more towards heavy or melodic metal.

The two vocalists by his side, and virtually the center of attention, both have the skills and the capacity to take heavy music to higher levels and I think that Tolkki has found the way to capitalize on their abilities. They are both rather amazing performers who I think complement each other with passion and also transform the music into emotional creations. I dig most of their appearances on this record, as they share the vocals on a few songs and also get opportunities to complete songs on their own.

I find the major share of this record being very solid. A bit more heavy riffing wouldn't have hurt and perhaps those absolute massive top songs are absent, but this album is an attractive making anyway. What I find a little strange is that the second half of the record notably exceeds the first half, so have some patience when you listen to this record, because the songs in the end hit me like a pile of rocks coming down from the hillside.

See also review of: The Revenge , The Battle

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	5	6	9	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - Tobbe