Phantasma - The Deviant Hearts

original review on  http://www.wingsofdeath.net/Phantasma-The-Deviant-Hearts

A collaboration between Georg Neuhauser (Serenity), Oliver Phillips (Everon), and Charlotte Wessels (Delain), that sounds interesting! The result is Phantasma, a project that comes with a novella written by madam Wessels, who’s angelic voice is being re-invented in ways we have never heard before. Phantasma is absolutely not a copy of Delain, nor Serenity, but still an obvious melting pot of the talents of both while still maintaining a very own atmosphere, with added talents as Dennis ‘Sly’ Schunke (Van Canto) and Tom Engelund (Evergray), to name a few.

The first thing that strikes me with opening song Incomplete are the beautifully simple lyrics that are being executed wonderfully with  lot of poetic feel. Both vocals compliment each other nicely on the right moments, and while this semi-intro flutters with innocence, we are now hearing the real deal with title song The Deviant Hearts. Warm, full and with a good dosage of epicness, packed with addicting drum fills but with a feeling like this is only the beginning of the good stuff.  Tom Engelund is taking the spotlight with his vocals at this one.

Runaway Gray feels like the intro of some soap opera at some parts while the piano fills that are added later give it more of a Transsiberean Orchestra-like feel.

Chloe Lowery – hailing from previously mentioned band – brings some interesting twists to Try - a song that is already packed with a lot of quirks. Still somewhat slow for the most part but with outstanding vocals in a duet  with Dennis Schunke that makes sure this song never becomes a bore. 

Enter Dreamscape has - like the title already gives away – quite some dreamy parts, but still delivers quite a blow. The chorus is something that has to be heard at full volume with Charlotte who mesmerizes everyone by taking her voices to places never heard before. Tom, Georg and Charlotte all have a role to play in this song, which they play with utmost brilliance and the bittersweet bombast that it creates makes Enter Dreamscape probably the best song on this album.

Quite more frivolous is Miserable Me, with almost a Danny Elfman/Tim Burton-ish atmosphere, especially with that funny piano fill that shows up here and there. De verses deliver quite a punch but the chorus kinda just drags along for my taste.

The Lotus and the Willow shows that Georg can bring a lot of warmth to a song with his lower vocals and it makes me wonder why he doesn’t use that more often. Dreamy in a way it almost cradles you to sleep, until the guitars are taking center stage at the right moment and it blossoms into quite the entertaining power ballad.

Crimson Course delivers a wake-up call after this. A song that would also work well as a musical score. Charlotte makes use of her more piercing vocals for the first time on this album and it is this that marks the prominence of this song on the grand scheme of the album.

My jaw almost drops to my toes while listening to Carry Me Home. Though quite simple at times, it gives the feeling like you could just float away to a better place. I hear Van Canto’s Dennis also use his voice in ways I have not yet heard before, and while this song already has a feel of rebirth, it looks like every vocalist at Phantasma shows sides of their voices that only this project could let emerge. We are almost re-discovering these well-known singers.

The Sound of Fear takes a more standard approach, as far as Phantasma’s work can be called ‘standard’, and actually doesn’t give much food for thought with its relaxed, feel good vibe. Again is made clear why Georg is such a master in delivering a great ballad.

Novaturiant appears to continue on the same foot - then again the album seems to lack speedy songs - but this one becomes the exception pretty fast. I do have the feeling that I’m listening to a Serenity track instead, and the characteristic gloomy-fairytale feel of Phantasma took a break.  At the last part of the song, Charlotte comes along and brings some Phantasma magic back to the show, concluding that this song with its unique speed for this setting does not have to compete with the rest of the album.

Far to soon we’ve arrived at the last song, Let It Die, which feels like a good closing track with its splendid timing. The verses are a bit held back but that only makes the choruses pop out even more, and instead of just dotting the I’s on this album it makes a pretty big exclamation mark. The sweet, innocent tune of the intro Incomplete makes a quick comeback to wrap it up, and after that it’s all over and done.

I expected a lot from this project, of which I have already heard lots of things about via the channels of Serenity and Delain, but this exceeded all my expectations! Although fans of the more speedy/heavy material might think of this as too slow or too romantic, it is just these things that make Phantasma so characteristic. I can’t say I ever heard anything quite like it and I don’t think I will come across anything remotely close in the near future either.

Phantasma shines a new light on the careers of both Georg and Charlotte that hopefully will resonate trough both of their bands. Really, a fantastic job well done! 

Review: Secret Sphere - A Time Never Come (re-release)

Original translation from http://www.wingsofdeath.net/Secret-Sphere-A-Time-Never-Come

After I got their previous album Portrait of a Dying Heart in my to-do list for WingsofDeath, the Italian group Secret Sphere has conquered a permanent place in my regular playlist. Now they thought it was time, like several other bands this year (seriously, is 2015 THE year of album anniversaries and re-releases?)  to rerecord their second album A Time Never Come, but now with the current line up with the fantastic voice of Michele Lupi at the helm.

The original A Time Never Come marked the breakthrough of Secret Sphere back in 2001, and is appraised as one of the highlights of the euro-power metal scene it it’s day. Unfortunately I never got to hear the original, so that’s why I’m ever so glad that I get a second chance now with a whole new sound to it.

From the first ‘real’ song of the album; Legend, it already appears that they stay true to the sound of the early zeroes. Stratovarius-esque keyboard tunes that were so popular back than are omnipresent, but the deep guitars that are rumbling underneath definitely got a modern upgrade. The whole thing breathes nostalgia but sounds fresh and new at the same time. That’s quite an accomplishment!

This album contains quite some mini-epics. We rage along to the seven minute long song Under The Flag of Mary Read, that contains a heavenly piece of vocal masturbation (gotta love them canons!). Other than that this one also has this great 2001 era powermetal feeling but still bright and intuitive.

The next mini-epic The Brave (again counting seven minutes) flutters between fast aggressive and euphoric, happy tunes, with a peculiar open ending with some dry vocals.

After two long songs it’s now time for something smaller, that is Emotions; which is a very atmospheric and interesting piece if instrumental music, that with a some kind of strange announcement opens the way for Oblivion. This one is also quite epic at some points, with a sense of adventure, with fantastic guitar solos and subtle orchestral elements behind it all, it fades way to another peculiar ending to Lady of Silence. A little bit slower and straightforward but with a proggy feeling here and there. The cadence on the drums underlining the chorus is subtle but very addicting!

Mystery of Love is a great ballad in a way that only Secret Sphere can create. Beginning quite humble but eventually it grows to a full sounding song with roaring guitar solos, dramatic keys-violin and a good dose of Italian passion. What follows is an intermezzo called Paganini’s Nightmare. This one flashes by gruelingly fast but it’s definitely very interesting!

Hamelin is a in-your-face powerclassic with a classical touch. Think; Yngwie Malmsteen. This one also fades out to the last intermezzo called Ascension. This one indeed sounds very dark and gloomy and I suddenly get the feeling I am sitting in a very tight space, ascending into something very ominous. What awaits down there is Dr. Faustus, the last mini-epic that fills 8 minutes worth of threatening tunes and solo’s that sound like and absolute boss!

I can really say that we got quite a unique album here, although it has been released twice. I don’t come across something with such and own atmosphere and theme like on this absolute jewel of an album very often, and I can certainly state that this record is a highlight of the genre, both on it’s initial release in 2001 as nowadays. I really have to check out that original version sometime.. 

Review: Temperance - Limitless

Original translation from http://www.wingsofdeath.net/Temperance-Limitless

Temperance from Italy is doing great! A year ago I got the privilege to review their debut album, and even today I still enjoy their fresh metal-meets-electronic sound. Now they are already releasing their second album Limitless, and I’m preparing myself for another merry headbang and sing-along spectacle!

The little choir on the opening track Oblivion is surprisingly new territory for Temperance, but soon enough that characteristic keyboard comes floating to the surface and the show is on the road! The verses sound suspiciously like The Nexus by Amaranthe, but the chorus is something totally new and singer Chiara brings out her best soprano vocals.

Amber & Fire brings out some oriental sounds, the same they apparently loved on their previous album. It’s not such a fast song but still it pounds its merry way to a multivocal little piece where afterwards the chorus hits you again with an added dose of spunk, and the whole thing chimes away to Save Me, that flashes like a short circuit that never ends. The amount of words they want to shove in a minimum amount of melody is astonishing, but if they can pull that of live that would be really something!

Stay is a curious semi ballad where Chiara might sing a bit less shrill for my part. So despite the fact that my eardrums are being impaled this is also a fine little song that has a nice curve from ballad to happy and speedy.

To express your admiration for a TV show in a song is one thing, but to take is so boldly literally as in Mr White that’s a whole other thing! “Mr White is not here, look for Heisenberg. Mr White is away, cooking crystal meth.” Can someone call the TV studio’s of Breaking Bad? I think they found a new showtune…

Here and Now strongly reminds of that lovely cheesy 90’s Eurohouse era. The same speedy vocals and bubbly keys, but with a slower chorus and a big dose of guitar violence, you don’t hear me complain at all about this hybrid of what I listened to at pre-school and what currently destroys my hearing. What comes next is a series of songs that are overflowing with sugarsweet lovestories. Omega Point is a bit on the slow side and bittersweet, a little dragging but still catchy. Me, Myself and I gives full throttle and is a short but very powerful song with a catchiness level that goes trough the roof, where the music is literally found in the lyrics. Side By Side continues on the same path, with a sporadic grunt here and there that freshens things up a bit. Goodbye is sometimes suspiciously happy for a song that’s about things you’ll never see again.

Burning is maybe one of the most feel-good songs on the album, and rages along with the sense of speed that Temperance made their own. Get a Life returns to the same rejected-love theme from before. Again very catchy with a chorus as a furious storm (after all, hell hath no fury as a rejected woman). Closing the album is title song Limitless. A nice, carefree rebel powerhymne that makes you happy. Guitar solos are skipping about between the sing-along choruses and all this makes a last stand that is worth remembrance.

Temperance once again impresses with their uplifting melodies, insane drums, ferocious guitars and the youthful, clear and versatile voice of Chiara Tricarico on the helm, which sometimes asks Marco Pastorino’s vocal chords for a dance. They do have to watch it that all that cocophony of speed and crowded lyrics don’t get too repetitive. But all this is positive criticism, because I love to see Temperance grow to be something big. They are already unique!  

Interview with Tony Kakko from Sonata Arctica

Hi Tony!
First of all… I have to say I’m absolutely THRILLED to interview you! I’ve been a huge fan since 2006, got the Sonata logo tattooed on my arm, went all the way to Finland to be at the Live in Finland DVD shoot, and well, I can fill a bible with the reasons why I love you so much. But enough about that… it’s you and the new album we wanna talk about!
Wow, that´s quite a way to start an interview! You surely caught my attention, haha! Cheers to that! Fire away!

So, first I’m really wondering.. What’s with the new hairdo’s? Looks like everyone except Elias has a new (shorter) haircut. Got tired of untangling everything after an evening of headbanging?
I, and I think Henrik as well same as Marko, got all tired of it and felt we´re old enough to cut it now. Haha! Really, I just wanted to refresh my appearance some, change something. I will never cut my beard, that´s for sure, so it had to be the hair.

I already wrote a review for Stones Grow Her Name and I must say, it’s a fantastic album! But I do notice the opinions among reviewers are varied. Some people still review you as a power metal band, while clearly you aren’t power metal anymore – or maybe even never been. Personally I think you’re too diverse to be labeled with a single genre, and power metal being the last thing I think of. what do you have to say about people still confusing you with power metal? And from what you have read so far, are you satisfied with the overall score the album got from the reviews?
I have not read any reviews. I usually get around that late on tour, when the dust has settled. I am on the same line with you here. I think we´re like a stylistic paint bomb spread over many genres. And yes, I´ve been saying it for years already, we´re not really power metal, not anymore. Unfortunately our label seems to think it´s very valuable and necessary to slam us on that box, so that people can find us. We managed to get our own genre in though. Melodic Heavy Rock. It seems we´re the only band there for the time being anyway. I am happy with the album. That´s the only thing that really matters for me. Reviewers are just humans. Sometimes equipped with very limited keyhole view on the music scene, due to their young age or just…some people just seem to like some certain thing. Does not really move me one way or another. I´m too old for that shit. :)

A lot of people are also talking about SGHN going back to the roots. Personally I think it’s more the Tricky Beans roots they’re talking about, though a lot of people got their hopes up now for you returning to the Ecliptica sound. Is this really a ‘back to the roots’ album? Or is it just a new branch on the ever growing musical tree that somehow seems to point backwards?
I´ve been talking about this roots thing on my interviews a lot lately and what I really mean is the early beginning, Tricky Beans stuff. We were a rock band. Metal elements arrived some years later. I can assure you all there will never be another "Ecliptica" or any other old album for that matter. That era has ended a long time ago, good riddance. I enjoy writing new an innovative things instead of playing it safe and doing the same well selling thing again and again and again…I love music. All kinds of music. Sonata will probably keep evolving in some way as long as we´re around. These kids who get little upset about these things should remember the old albums are always there. I keep reminding people that had Pantera stayed true to their early beginnings, the world would have missed one hellova metal band.

Now you seem to retrace your steps to earlier sounds, especially towards the sound of Reckoning Night, does that mean the drastic style change with Unia and Days of Grays didn’t turn out to be successful after all? (I do love both albums, for the record!)
We do? I can´t hear it, really. I thought we are embracing something that is totally new and different for us, once again. I think we gained a lot of attention and the awareness towards our music rose a lot with these two albums. Some people had absolutely hated that "dick swinging fag metal" we represented with our first few albums, but totally fell in love with our new style. All the changes we have done have been pushed through because we have, or I have, wanted to make it so for selfish artistic reasons. "Unia", the great weird, saved this band, gave us a new start, and thus was a very necessary breath of fresh air in the band. I think both of those albums did pretty well sales wise. Interesting to see, however, how this new way of doing things is received by people. We aim to stir the nest. :)

On SGNH the somewhat psychopathic story of Wildfire continues. Personally I love all your psycho songs, like the Caleb saga for example. What inspires you to write such great psycho thrillers? One could even start to wonder if there’s a psychopath hidden somewhere inside you, because with those songs (especially when played live) you seem to translate the psychopathic emotions so well into music and, and with the added drama you put into it (think: Juliet) it’s almost creepy! Phenomenal though, but creepy!
Wildfire is actually about the battle between us, the human animal, against this planet we inhabit. The story morphs from this tale, where a person gets ostracized for the sake of his family name, into a more general, "we´ve struggled to survive in the nature, so now tables have turned and the environment is struggling to survive us"-story. And not actually even a story, but the actual way things are. We are destroying this planet only to be able to leave one day, providing our technical abilities have reached high enough level. It may take another million years, until we find and are able to inhabit another planet, but then we´ll invade it and destroy it just the same. Unless our way of thinking changes. But yeah, thank you. I do like writing stories I can see as movies. Caleb-Juliet-drama has been an interesting to do, I´ve had fun with it. Those songs have always been among my favorite ones on those albums. There´s a little psychopath and an actor within each of us. Who do you choose to see is in the eye of the beholder.

It could be just me, but I didn’t find any wolf songs in SGHN. Is it hidden in some kind of bonus track, or did you decide to quit the wolf song tradition? How did you start the whole wolf song tradition anyway?
Someone asked me this same thing on one of the very first interviews I had over this album, answering her own question with a suggestion "did Caleb take the wolf out for a walk?" I like that. I think he did. The wolf is not really present on this album, unless you want to hear the pack on the "Wildfire"s. I just noticed in some point that we had had one or more wolf related songs on each album. So the tradition kind of established itself. I just got aware of it one day, making it a more aware decision to get there again and again. It was also my safe-place in case I got a too long white paper period. I´m confident wolf is just around the corner, so don´t let your kids or pets out to play. Buhaha!

I can imagine that if you create a melody, you might find things in there you have already used on a previous song. Do you find it harder creating new songs than it was seven albums ago?
No, not really. When I notice same moods and feels on more than one song, and there are, naturally, it is merely because I am a person with certain personality and knowledge-experience range, something that makes me…me. I think it´s the same with every song writer. I would call it "a style" or "a thing". I have my own "style thing". But yeah, I do sometimes come up with a melody that makes me suspect I might have used it before somewhere. Just have to ask around then or accept the fact that it might resemble something me or someone else has done before. Or make the thing you´ve come up with even better. One of my reoccurring nightmares is that I´ve written a great song, it plays on radio when I suddenly realize it´s actually a copy of a Queen song or something.

You are playing on the Zwarte Cross Festival later this summer. Did you know it has a kind of ‘hillbilly redneck’ reputation? I find it quite a funny coincidence because those terms pop up everywhere when people talk about Cinderblox. So any chance it will show up in the setlist for the occasion, one time for the hell of it?
Had no idea. Everything is possible. We´ll be playing it in some point anyways. That´d be a good start, I think. :)

The World Wide Web is filled with tons of weird/crazy/goofy pictures of you guys. I swear I even read a sex story featuring Marko once! (got a link from a friend of a friend of a friend… don’t ask) Did you ever wished you could remove certain pictures/story’s on the web? And are you satisfied with the image the world gets from you from that kind of stuff?
Fabrications are not always very nice, but as with everything in there, it´s near impossible to remove once online. Naturally there are both good and bad pictures of each of us and artists are always on the line of fire. I would actually remove the whole existing internet, given the chance. I don´t like it very much. Someone should reset it and rebuilt it again, with rules and laws. Everyone in there should be identifiable. Personally, I don´t have faintest idea what kind of stories there are circling about me and I don´t even care or want to know. I´m sure my happiness does not increase tremendously if I read these things.

I heard here and there you recorded a cover of Genesis’ I Can’t Dance. Is that gonna be released somewhere anytime soon? And since you have a lot of covers already, ever planned on making a cover-only album?
Yeah, we try to put one new out with each album. This time a Genesis song. No plans for the release yet, but we´ll get it out in some form someday. Cover album…If someone is willing to pay us the expenses, that might be possible. I don´t think that kind of thing would be a real money maker. Fun idea, anyway.

I can imagine you already received hundreds of gifts from fans all over the world. From artworks, to bottles of vodka, stuffed wolves and candy, but what is your favorite thing to get from a fan? And what is the craziest/funniest/weirdest thing you ever got?
Favorite thing to get? I collect Hard Rock Cafe bears, these beanie-bag-things. I must have like 40 of the already from all over the world. Bough the vast majority of them myself. Nice souvenirs. Those are nice. Other thing I like very much is a nice smile. Weirdest-funniest thing I´ve gotten… well, I think it must be something I got from Japan. They have all sorts of things we Finns call oddities. It´s all good. :)

Are there any Dutch words you know? (we already heard you say ‘dankjewel’ a lot of times on Lowlands 2009)
Damn.. I did learn some others too while on tour with Epica. Never mind the way I write them now… I know "snoepjes" and "lipgloss", which probably just sounds like Dutch, but is in fact an English word meaning…drumroll…lipgloss!

If you had to take a single song from your work, put it for all to hear and say "-This- is Sonata Arctica" what song would it be and why?
Impossible to choose. Our catalogues style range is so wide I find it too hard to pick one song without explaining the living shit out of my choice and naming 10 others at the same time. Depends on the person I am supposed to impress, I suppose. :)

In the beginning when Sonata was formed, how did you meet the other band members? Or did you already know them for some time? So what happened… You guys just decided one day; let’s start a metal/hard rock band and see what happens?
Marko, who then played guitar ,and our first bass player Pentti started this band with their school mates Jani and Tommy asking me to join in as a singer. I played with Marko in the same band of very different sort at the time, so I knew him from that already. …yeah, it went pretty much like you said there. The guys just decided to form a band and asked me to join too. Rest it past. :)

How do you feel about being able, not only to share your mind and express yourself in music and lyrics, but also to reach so many people’s hearts in many different ways?
I feel good about it. I´m grateful for all the feedback I get. At times it feels…something in the neighborhood of weird, funny and honored, when people ask me to help them with the situation they are having with their sweethearts. Makes me feel like a love doctor, haha! Which I am not. But if the songs help people with whatever it is making them feel uneasy, that´s great! Music serves a purpose.

And now the most random question of them all: If you could pick 4 superpowers, what would they be and why?
All super powers seem to have some tragic downside. But…birds fly. Is it a superpower? Let´s play it is.
Flying
invisibility when needed
super intelligence that can be turned on and off, so it does not drive me crazy.
Ability to stop time. I´d stop the clock to sleep and create myself a 36h day. That´d be great!
I think me having those four would effectively destroy this planet, haha!

Are there any questions you have never been asked before, but liked to be asked?
"Can I pay off your mortgage?". I´d answer: yes.

So, that’s the end of the questions. Thanks a lot for answering them, and I hope to see you guys soon on a festival or on the European tour! And on a more personal note: I’d like you to know that you and your music have made a huge impact on my life, and I’m extremely thankful for that! And knowing a lot of other Sonata fans, I’m not the only one who thinks that way and we all just want to say one thing: kiitos!
Makes me happy to hear that. Kiitos teille kaikille. Thank you all. I would not be able to do what I do without you.
See you on tour, folks!