Of wars in Osyrhia --- Fairyland --- 2002 (NTS)
A metal band with a name like Fairyland? Surely not! Would you, as a self-respecting metal head, admit to your mates you were going to see Fairyland? Well, if you judged them solely on their name then a) you'd be an idiot --- haven't you heard about books and covers? --- and b) you'd be missing out on some of the most exciting and melodic symphonic power metal to come your way in quite a long time.
Hailing from la belle France, Fairyland began life as Fantasia, under which name they released a demo album called “Realm of wonders”, but there was no label involved so “Of wars in Osyrhia” is officially their debut album. The brainchild of founder and keyboard player Philippe Giordana, it's a real diamond in the rough, one of those albums you hear and think “why the hell haven't I heard of these guys before?” Well, to be fair, after recording this album and its follow-up in 2006, Philippe split from the band and went off to form another version of Fairyland, who released an album in 2009 called “Score to a new beginning”, so they haven't exactly been all that prolific. But what they have released has more than made up for the dearth of albums.
It starts off with a short introductory track, entitled “And so came the storm”, which comes across as a film soundtrack, with sounds of thunder and rain against keyboard played in a medieval type melody, and choral voices in the mould of Orff's “Camina Burana”, but things soon get heavy with “Ride with the sun”, some great keyboards and thunderous drumming, the vocalist Elisa C. Martin, perviously of Dark Moor, starts singing, though she's a little hard to hear in the mix. The backing vocals, interestingly, are much better, and it's easy to see how this is Giordana's baby as his keyboards take centre stage in the songs.
It's essentially a concept album, as you may have guessed from the title, concerning a fairly standard storyline, that of the good hero fighting the evil force. But the concept is secondary, and the music is really good. Fairyland have been accused of being a clone of the band Rhapsody, but as I have never heard (of) them, I can't make that deliberation. Whether they are or not, this is music I most certainly enjoy. I'm still finding Elisa hard to hear though, at times she seems to have to sing louder than she should have to, to be heard above the eternal keyboard runs and the hammering drums. Like the Labyrinth album reviewed previously, perhaps this is just down to bad production, but it does steal a certain something from the album.
Great guitar work from Anthony Parker on “Doryan the enlightened”, but almost as if he wants to make sure everyone knows that this is
his band, it's matched by an equally dextrous keyboard run by Giordana. Boys, boys! Settle down! I must say, I do find the constant presence of backing vocals both at times overpowering (not least for poor Elisa!) and unneccesary. The first slow track, “The storyteller”, is a very good example of this. When left to her own devices, and with just piano or keyboard backing, you can hear Elisa very well, and clearly, but as soon as the backing vocals (I would almost call them a choir) come in, usually on the back of heavy drums, she's lost again. And I just don't see any reason why they, the backing vocals/choir, needed to be in this track. It's carried on a middle ages type melody, and would have been a good vehicle for the singer, but she has to contend with the ever-present choir, and she's just not up to the task. Few would be, to be fair.
“On the path to fury” has a spoken intro, possibly the evil force against which the hero is struggling. It's hard to be sure, as the lyrics are not that easy to distinguish, given the problems I have already referred to with the vocals. It's another fast rocker, and yes, that choir is drowning poor Elisa out again! What a pity, as we really could do with hearing more of her. More great guitar solos from Parker in this track, and the drums, courtesy of (I really should have mentioned him before, shouldn't I?) Pierre-Emmanuel Desfray (now you know why!) thunder along like galloping horses heading to the battlefield. Again, though, Philippe has to have the last word, and anything you can do, Anthony, I can do better, as he fires up the keyboard for another stunning solo.
The first proper ballad comes in the shape of “Rebirth”, on harpsichordal keyboard and organ, and here finally we get to hear Elisa sing as she can sing. The choir only blast in for the chorus, on which she wisely takes a break from singing to allow them their head, then they return the favour for the verses. If only they would follow this arrangement for the whole album! Near the end there's even a harkback to Genesis' “Fountain of Salmacis” from “Nursery cryme”, then we're back into hard-rockin' epic territory for “The Fellowship”: the choir is used to good effect here, but to be honest, things seem to be thundering along on the same rails for the last few tracks.
Now don't get me wrong. I'm not going back on what I said at the opening of this article. This IS a great album, but it's far from flawless. In fact, if I had to choose its major flaw I would say uneven distribution of work. If I were to break this album down in terms of a pie chart, it'd go like this:-
Keyboards 60%
Drumming 20%
Choral/backing vocals/choir 10%
Guitar7%
Lead vocal 3%
That just isn't good enough to ensure a great record. As I said earlier, this may be down to production, but the keys, though undeniably excellent, are overpowering, and the choir, though again impressive, doesn't seem to know when it should just shut up and let Elisa sing, resulting in her not being heard very clearly for a lot of the album. I haven't heard their other albums, but if they have sorted the percentage by then, I would hope and imagine “Fall of an empire”, the follow-up to this release, would be a lot better.
At least “The army of the White Mountains” is different, taking a step away from the fast thundering rock to produce an instrumental almost entirely carried on keyboard. Notwithstanding what I said above about the overpresence of keys, this is a great little (little? It's over six minutes long!) track, and though it could be looked upon as self-indulgence by Philippe Giordana, it works very well as a sort of theme, breaking up the epic power-metal passages. It's quite a
tour de force by the man, and deserves to be listened to. Even seems to use some melodic ideas from
Star Wars,
Star Trek and some western movies I remember!
Then we're into the final, and title track, which is also by some way the longest, at just under eleven minutes. An epic in the grand tradition, it starts off with rolling drums and then strings to take it into some power guitar and keyboard with attendant ringing bells (of victory?), and the pace shifts up about three gears as the intro continues, vocals not coming in till about two minutes into the track, but again sadly quickly lost under the intervention of the choir. Nice string section then the power-metal continues with some great guitar work from Parker, real shredding stuff.
There's a nice slow section then halfway through, where Elisa gets to sing unhindered and she really does have a good voice, then it all picks up again for a combined keyboard and guitar attack which leads into another medieval piece on keys, with the choir getting into full voice, and for once, sounding like they should be there, and actually adding to the atmosphere of the album instead of taking away from it. In the end though, I do feel this track is perhaps two or three minutes too long, and feels a little formulaic, as if they believed there
had to be a ten-minutes-plus epic on the album. Still, for what it is, it's well executed, and closes the album very well.
This album is one example of why it's better to buy the CD rather than download it, as a lyric booklet would have greatly enhanced my enjoyment of the album. It's not that I didn't love it, I did, but I found it hard to make out lyrics and therefore was unable to follow the story, which sounds on the surface like it really is well written and worth hearing. But even without the lyrics to hand it's still a really enjoyable album, and will be eaten up by anyone who enjoys power prog/symphonic metal and fantasy themes.
TRACKLISTING
1. And so came the storm
2. Ride with the sun
3. Doryan the enlightened
4. The storyteller
5. Fight for your king
6. On the path to fury
7. Rebirth
8. The Fellowship
9. A dark omen
10. The army of the White Mountains
11. Of wars in Osyrhia