Just by
looking at the members in Constancia you automatically know that we are
dealing with some very talented musicians that know how to create and deliver
first class music. In the driving seat we find keyboard player Mikael Rosengren
(Ex-Scudeiro/Token) and guitarist Janne Stark (Overdrive, Locomotive Breath),
who have written a good selection of melodic hard rock songs, which borders to
metal and progressive metal.
The rhythm
section is equally strong consisting of drummer Peter Svensson (Locomotive
Breath, Mercy etc.) and bass player Michael Mueller (Jaded Heart), so the basics
were in place, all they need was a strong vocalist. And why not turn to someone
Janne and Peter had worked with in the past - on Janne's Mountain of Power project to
be more precise? David Fremberg (Andromeda) was convinced by the stuff he heard
and Constancia became a reality.
Janne has used
the term 'Melogressive Metal' to describe the style, and he wanted to combine
his fascination for classic pomp melodic bands like Styx, Trillion and City Boy
with more progressive and aggressive aspects of metal. Well I fail to hear the
aggressive part, but the pompy 70's style is ever-present and the hooks are
razor-sharp and the combination works very well for most parts. They are not
able to maintain the high level on all twelve songs, but there is still plenty
of good melodic metal on 'Lost and Gone'.
The pool of
Swedish musical talent seems bottomless, and Constancia is just a perfect
example of that, and one of the better ones. David Fremberg has a very unique
and easily recognisable voice, and he shows on 'Lost and Gone' that he is more
than capable of singing more than his usual style, and his contribution surely
helps this album a lot, and the result is a very good melodic metal album.
