I must admit I love Xandria, because of their style, content, their singer, performances … Sadly I have never seen them on stage: once I was sick, then I had some private troubles and finally on my last attempt they had to cancel their gig due to illness of Dianne van Giersbergen whilst the rest of the band was ready to perform on stage at the Biebob. Now they have a new album and will soon perform again in my country, all good reasons to be happy!
The list of special guests is also worth checking out: Henning Basse (Firewind), Zaher Zorgati (Myrath), Björn Strid (Soilwork) and Ross Thompson (Van Canto). They start with Where The Heart Is Home: head banging symphonic/opera metal. It’s going from hard and heavy to soft and fragile with our favorite nightingale in the front. The whole band does a marvelous job and creates a certain tension, opening the story line with lots of pathos! Death To The Holy has some Irish influences in the beginning and cool raffling drums. The guitars, the choir and symphonic instruments lifts the song to a higher level . Raise your sword and join them! Forsaken Love is a (false) ballad, filled with emotions a huge opera touch, some Irish touch and sweetness. Dianne’s voice reaches a high and mesmerizes me! Call of Destiny is loud and heavy, a truly head banging trip with a cool guitar solo and a powerful choir. We Are Murderes (We All) gets the help of Björn Strid and sounds pretty explosive and heavy (listen to the guitars and drums). It’s song with a high drive and lots of pathos, with from time to time a vocal fight. This is simply heaven for symphonic/opera metal lovers! I can already scream out that this album is a masterpiece (and I’m not even halfway my album review, but been listening to it the whole day before finally starting to put some words on paper).
Dark Night Of The Soul is a fragile ballad with a magical siren on vocals, great bass, a flute and a soft sound. Towards the end the song gets a wider sound, more pathos and will make you shed a tear. What a great final in the end (it will be a magical moment on stage, for sure)! When The Walls Came Down (Heartache Was Born) looks like a nice title and gets the right musical vibe: solo’s, impressive percussion, a philharmonic sound filled with pathos. Ship Of Doom gets a Van Canto touch with the participation of Ross Thompson and very fast becomes one of my favorite tracks of the album as it has the best musical twists, the best musical touch and a rich variety in the sound and vocals with enough drama and pathos to keep us all bounded! Céilí brings in a more folky touch and starts a little party. It sounds a bit like The Dolmen or Rastaban goes heavy metal. In the end it appears to be a wordless interlude, but it’s a nice interlude (mostly I think about them as a waste of studio time, but not here). Song For Sorrow And Woe goes back to the classic Xandria sound: overwhelming, strong and beautiful! Burn Me gets some help from Zaher Zorgati. It has an old Indian feel, mixed with some opera, guitars on fire and a solo that will make you melt whilst the choir ads this little extra to lift it up to a higher level. It’s just amazing how they can craft such a beauty in a studio! Queen Of Hearts Reborn starts in a Gipsy’s way: acoustic and with a nightingale behind the mic. Once the song explodes you feel the energy merging! Henning Basse has the honor to jump in during the last track: A Theater Of Dimensions. The last song is an epic one: a last goodbye, with a romantic touch. It’s a theatrical end (going out with a ka-boom and a tear), maybe they will use it as closing song too, who knows?
I can say this to the fans: try to buy the deluxe version with the bonus acoustic album (I listened to it via Spotify) as it’s worth it’s money and shows off their quality with their stripped version of great tracks!
CD:
01. Where The Heart Is Home
02. Death To The Holy
03. Forsaken Love
04. Call Of Destiny
05. We Are Murderers (We All)
06. Dark Night Of The Soul
07. When The Walls Came Down (Heartache Was Born)
08. Ship Of Doom
09. Céilí
10. Song For Sorrow And Woe
11. Burn Me
12. Queen Of Hearts Reborn
13. A Theater Of Dimensions
Bonus CD: Acoustic Album:
1. Call of destiny
2. Dark Night of the Soul
3. In Remembrance
4. Sweet Atonement
5. Valentine
