Ship ahoy
mates...
Four years
have passed since Wuthering Heights released their latest album "The
Shadow Cabinet", a very good power metal album with small inputs from
progressive metal as well as folk. The constellation remains the same and the
influences have not changed that much either, so everything should be in place
for another brilliant Wuthering Heights album, right? Not quite I am
afraid...
Erik Ravn
and his shipmates are taking us on a sea journey this time, inspired by the sea
and its people. They have implemented some new themes with reference to that
particular environment, but the rest do sound too safe and a bit like re-cycling
- sure there are glimpses of brilliance, and there is no denying that the band
is very capable technically, but they really haven't moved much forward.
The
harmonies remains the same and the sound universe remains almost the same, which
is a bit frustrating because Nils Patrick Johansson proves once more, why many
consider him among the best European metal vocalists and the rhythm section is
brilliant, but the song writing simply hasn't taken the expected step forward.
"Salt" is a
solid and well produced power metal album that sadly doesn't quite reach the
same high level that their earlier albums did, nor do they live up to my high
expectations.
