The second one is Second Renaissance, and let me tell you, this is probably the biggest musical improvement I have ever seen from any band (except for maybe In Flames and their second album), and I’m being serious. Not only is everything better, but it is memorable as well, with perfect quality, amazing musicianship, masterful writing, everything. The orchestral instruments are the best part of this album. They range from organs, violins, and pianos to a full blown orchestra (although I’m pretty sure most of it was recorded on a keyboard) on certain tracks. The guitar playing was good but hard to get into. It always seems to be overpowered by the orchestral elements. The drumming was the same, and the bass didn’t do anything but provide some rhythm. I can’t really recall specifically hearing it.
Kadenzza is a really fun band. It contains a really talented musician who has excellent knowledge on how to start a song and keep it going. If I had to say one bad thing about this band, it would be that the guitar is not prominent enough. It always seems to be in the background, and except for a few solos, I wasn’t too impressed by it. All in all, Kadenzza is the true definition of a diamond in the rough and you should check it out.
This band is a lot like Kadenzza in many ways—so many ways that I don’t have that much to say. It’s a folk/symphonic/black/power metal band, kind of like Ensiferum but with more symphonics and folk instruments. Like Kadenzza, it also has only two albums, one of which was released just a few months ago. Unlike Kadenzza, both of the albums are awesome. They both attempt the same style of music, but seem to go off in their own separate ways and come out in the end as very different albums. The first album seems to go all over the place and tries different styles of music—even some Middle Eastern style melodies make an appearance on it. The second is much more straightforward, establishing itself as a symphonic folk metal release.
Now both of these albums are a lot of fun, but they do get somewhat repetitive and aren’t groundbreaking. First off, the vocals aren’t amazing; we have a guy who does black metal growls and a girl who does some pseudo-operatic vocals like a weaker version of Tarja Turunen from Nightwish. While they both get the job done, neither of them sound inspired, and although they don’t annoy me, I don’t love either of them. Likewise, the guitars were not very impressive either and mostly resorted to playing heavy riffs—they never do solos. This band’s sound is dominated by the symphonics, so if you don’t like those, this is another band you can count out.
Article comments
1 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
Yea, when everybody and their grandmother is releasing "metal" albums nowadays, the Japanese just need to stick with what they do best... Fusion. As for anything "Symphonic" (translation: keyboards) or Folk (translation: yawnfest),
I'd rather traverse another genre other than metal. The new Alex Skolnick Trio album is very enjoyable....