Heaven sent indeed!
Artiste: Millenium
Nationality: American
Album: Angelfire
Year: 1999
Label: Frontiers
Genre: AOR/Melodic metal
Tracks
Nations
Shaman
Beyond the pain
Until the end of time
Angelfire
Heaven sent
Julia
Bound for glory
Run
Waiting for Godot
Remember
Saving grace
The colour of night
Hide behind my face
Dawn
Return (hidden track)
Chronological position: Second album.
Familiarity: “Millenium”, “Hourglass”
Interesting Factoid: The way this band insist on spelling their name makes it next to impossible to Google them:
Did you mean “millennium”? No I bloody didn't!
Impression: Superb. Stunning. Sumptuous. Superlative. And a lot more words beginning with S.
Best track(s): Hard to pick out one, as they're all pretty damn good. Opener
Nations, despite being a short instrumental, is very effective and a great beginning to the album. Then
Shaman, Until the end of time, Angelfire, Julia, Run, the amazing acapella breakdown
Remember … hell, it's
all good!
Worst track(s): Whatchoo talkin' bout? Ain't no bad tracks on
this baby!
Intention: One more album and I'll have heard everything to date in their catalogue.
Comments: It's quite a crime that these guys aren't better known, as Millenium play excellent power AOR, verging into metal territory on occasion. My introduction to them was via the album “Hourglass”, and that just blew me away. I'm tempted to say this is better. Chock-full of hooks, great vocal performances, even the obligatory power ballads which somehow don't sound that cheesy. Not to mention fifteen tracks, which is good value for anyone's money. But more importantly, not a bad track in all of those fifteen. It just keeps getting better the more you listen to it. It truly is the album that keeps on giving! I kept waiting for a bad track --- surely there had to be something lower quality here? --- but was happily disappointed. And the album ends with a gorgeous guitar instrumental, bringing everything full circle. Could probably have done without the silly few seconds of “hidden track” right at the end, but if that's the worst I can say about “Angelfire”, then it's only a tiny little flaw in an otherwise perfect album.
Look, I know I said these reviews would be very short, but hell, this album deserves a little more devotion. You need to hear this. Even choosing one YouTube was a job, but I eventually decided to go with this. I think I love this album!