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The fourth album from the Swedish melodic-power metal band Cloudscape is another step forward in their metal development. My personal stand point is that Cloudscape is one of the strongest metal bands in Scandinavia, which has yet to reach the metalized European public. Progressive tracks with their own mixture of melodic rock and groovy metal spice. They require high focus and concentration of the listener because this is a really fat production with bombastic thickness that fills the ear canals with lots of lovely heavy melodic progressive metal. The difference from other progressive metal bands is the dimmed aggressiveness in several tracks; it's like blending of Symphony X and Journey. The brilliant guitars are present and the characteristic tempo-changes are obvious. I have to applaud the fine, strong voice of the lead singer Mike Andersson (Fullforce) and his contribution on 'New Era' is superb. Patrik Svärd and Stefan Rosqvist on guitars are monsters as string bending masters. Fredrik Joakimsson on the drums and Håkan Nyander on bass are doing a great job in the rhythm section. I am a fan of different kinds of heavy music and on this album I get almost all my favorite metal genres covered. The more melodic hard rock tunes are well polished gems and the darker, faster metal songs are wonderfully balanced with heavy guitars and with mega-strong vocals. Mike can change his voice-tune into the right pitch depending the character of the track. My favourite track is changing every day, depending my own mood. That is something I use to feel about albums that I pick on my 'best albums of the year' list. 'New Era' is a strong candidate for a high position on my list!
The technical prowess and the positive driven metal which is
served on 'New Era' is a fist-punch in my old ugly face. If you
like melodic metal and want it packed in a progressive,
technical box, then this is the album you've been waiting for.
If you are a Cloudscape fan already, don't hesitate to buy this
disc. I will have this one in my Ipod for a long, long time. |
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