FIFTH SPIN
So, let's see where the Wheel of Mystery (well, the “play random” key on my media player!) ends up sending us this time! Looks like it's settled on a band from Switzerland --- first time for that, I think --- known as Lunatica, who are described as a “symphonic metal band”. Can't be bad. Let's get a little background, then, shall we?
Formed in 1998, the band has released, up to now, four albums, with a fifth in the works since 2010. A quick look at their website, however, for up-to-date information, merely informs the reader “We are working on our new album and website”. Hmm. No date. So could be that abovementioned --- and as yet untitled --- fifth album, or could be that the information is old and Lunatica have split. Who knows? When your own website gives out that little information, bad news I fear. But all may not be lost.
Fables and dreams --- Lunatica --- 2004 (Frontiers)
Lunatica are, it would seem, another of those female-fronted bands like Nightwish, Leaves' Eyes, Within Temptation et al. This is their second album, and it opens like a movie soundtrack, with low synth, wind noises and the sound of what I take to be an eagle screeching. Dramatic, powerful music flows over the listener, then a voice announces
”Two years ago, Atlantis was found/ But this is history/ And my search continues/ The search for a book/ A book called Fables and Dreams.” It appears from the opener, “The search goes on” that this album is a concept one, based around the search for the eponymous book, and that a tale is going to unfold as the album progresses. I don't know who does the narration, as the only credit given for vocals is for Andrea Datwyler (there are some umlauts in there, but my character set doesn't support them), and the narrator's voice is definitely male.
At any rate, “The search goes on” is carried mostly on the atmospheric and ethereal keyboard work of Alex Seiberl, and is pretty much an overture to the album proper. First real track, “Avalon”, is much punchier, guitar-driven by Sando D'Incau, with Seiberl swapping his synth for a nice piano, and we first hear Andrea's vocals. Very powerful and clear they are too, not as operatic as Sabine Edelsbacher or Tarja, but strong and distinctive. The music is very much what you'd expect of a symphonic metal band: big, brash, dramatic, bombastic, with lots of keyboard runs and guitar solos. “Elements” slows things down just a little for its opening, then speeds up again as the keyboards lead the song in what becomes a powerful slice of symphonic rock, nice sharp guitars backing up the keyboard lines and again some effective piano slotted in there too.
The title track is the first (and only) ballad, nicely laidback with a duetting vocal, but don't ask me with whom Andrea sings: information on this album is sketchy, to say the least! Whoever he is, he's good, his raw, somewhat gutteral style perfectly complementing the clear, angelic voice of the lead singer. Nice ballad with some very nice keyboards and choral vocals. “Still believe” is an epic, strings and keys driven monster, the second longest on the album (“Elements” pipped it by about forty seconds), mid-paced with urgent guitar and frothy keyboards, more of those nice choral vocals. “The spell” is a much faster, uptempo rocker, with male backing vocals added in the style of Evanescence and some nice guitar work from D'Incau, and the tempo doesn't slacken for “The neverending story”, and though it seems like “Hymn” is bringing things down a gear, it's actually not the case as it explodes into another fast rocker with some really good backing vocals. A cover of an old Ultravox, apparently, but I don't recognise it personally.
Things keep moving with “Silent scream”, and a problem I'm coming up against fairly regularly now with these bands I've not heard before is that a lot of their material sounds very similar. It's certainly the case here: the last three tracks have sort of gone by in something of a blur, one could be the other and so on. That's not to say they're not good, but I don't see anything about any of them standing out enough to make me either remember them, or want to seek them out to play them again. In short, if I were making a playlist of symphonic metal, I'd be hard-pressed to know/remember which tracks to choose from this album, if at all. Perhaps that will change with the final track...
Well, it starts off like some dance track. That's interesting. Loud, brash keys, galloping guitar, choral vocals. This is “ A little moment of desperation”, but despite the promisingly different opening, it seems to slip into what appears to be the natural groove for this band, and becomes another somewhat faceless and generic track, indistinguishable from the rest. Pity, thought there was going to be something original here to close.
After all that, I'm left with the feeling that this album could easily have fit into the “Meh...” slot, which is never a good thing. You never know what you're going to get when you Spin The Wheel, of course, but I had hoped for so much more from this band. From something that began well, it quickly slipped into mundanity and even the concept --- if there truly is one --- is lost on me; it's certainly not expressed through the songs, though as ever with a concept album (if indeed this is such) it helps to have the liner notes to follow the story, as we found when I reviewed Fairyland's “Of wars in Osyrhia”. In the end, not bad at all, nothing against them, but kind of like I said at the beginning, there are so many other bands doing this so much better than Lunatica, I have to wonder if they'll ever get that untitled fifth album finished?
TRACKLISTING
1. The search goes on
2. Avalon
3. Elements
4. Fable of dreams
5. Still believe
6. The spell
7. The neverending story
8. Hymn
9. Silent scream
10. A little moment of desperation