Wuthering Heights
Salt
Rating
Style: Heavy Metal
Release date: April 12th 2010
 

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.


Tracklist
01. Away!
02. The Desperate Poet
03. The Mad Sailor
04. The Last Tribe (Mother Earth)
05. Tears
06. Weather the Storm
07. The Field
08. Water of Life
09. Lost at Sea
Label: Scarlet Records
Distribution: Target (Denmark)
Reviewed by: Kenn Jensen
Date: March 23rd 2010
Website: www.wuthering-heights.dk