Empires of Eden
Channeling the Infinite

Empires of Eden, that is one majestic name squealing about something of an Homeric epos worthy of your attention. The album cover does not defer from this notion either, but who one Earth designed the logo? it looks bad and ruins a bit of the feel of the cover art and also the feel of the band as well, at least for me who haven’t heard them before. Maybe band is a bit of an overstatement as it is more or less Stu Marshall and drummer Jasix along with a racket of guest vocalist and some additional soloists so we might rather talk project if we are to be more accurate. Returning to what I first stated I would liken the logo as sticking fifteen inch steel rims on a Bugatti Veyron, something you just can’t do. Anyway, this band comes highly acclaimed by many reviewers around the web having received an average rating of over nine out of ten for the latest release before this one which is their third, but the thing is these days with many reviewers on the internet, that they seem to overrate everything to quite a big degree looking at some sites summarising a year with over twenty albums from one reviewer having received the top rating so how good can things really be? Is music that amazing these days that it is hard to give anything but top ratings? maybe compared to the seventies, but you have to change the ratings for averages of the times and this makes me believe I am a bit loosing the track of this album which has also been well received with only top ratings this far. Now then, I as a very critical guy will look into this and see wether or not it stands up to my prying eyes.

First of all lets look at the music which is power metal or heavy metal in foundation, built with several different singers making it compete with acts like Ayreon or Avantasia who are also multi-singer projects, Ayreon is quite different but Avantasia can be said to be near. To the power metal there is added orchestration to give what is called a more epic feel although I don’t think this album has a sound that makes you think in terms of the “epic” storytelling but rather a typical album with thirteen songs and around 65 minutes of music. The songs feel quite linked together which i suppose they should be as there seems to be some indication towards it being an album with a concept but I cannot be certain of that because the information on this is sketchy at best. What is certain though is that the singers themselves has written song melodies and lyrics to their songs themselves which is very clearly stated everywhere, this of course can add a bit of variation to the album having different voices and different ideas on how to sing. Thing is though that this variation is much smaller than you might expect making me think that the singers are selected from a very narrow range of musical ideas.

Some singers do stand out a bit like Udo of Accept and also Cage singer Sean Peck has a voice that stands out, and I can say that overall the singers are very good on this album. Another thing that is good is the production giving a modern and majestic soundscape, although most power metal today manages that, it would appear. But thinking of the sound in general I would say that it is a lot less majestic and a lot less epic in character than we are led to believe, also the variation is surprisingly small considering the statement that the singers have written their parts themselves, is the individuality really that small amongst metal/rock singers? Still, it sounds powerful and well made and as I already stated the performances are good and I would say all singers sound great in their vocal work, even Udo who usually are quite terrible.

What about this album then? is it as good as the predecessor which is supposed to have been amazing? is it even as good as the first reviews of it leads you to believe? I cannot compare it to the predecessor but if it is a near full scoring album in reality this is not even close to that one. And no it is not as good as the first reviews leads you to believe, but it is a good album there is no denying that. But standing up to and even naming Ayreon and Avantasia somewhere in the biography does lead to comparison between Empires of Eden and those projects and in comparison with Ayreon’s and Avantasia’s rock operas this one feels very much ordinary. It does not feel like a story is being told, the songs are generally in level with most power metal and although it is fun to listen to the album while doing so you feel quite betrayed by the press information which hints towards this being something extraordinary, which it just isn’t.

There are a few highlights on this album, Hammer Down on which Udo makes a great appearance is a strong contender but the best song on the album is the really powerful This Time where Steve Grimmett does a much better job that he did when I heard him on the Grimmstine album some time ago. That third track called This Time is the only time you really stop in the stride and the only song that really makes a lasting impression from this album, the rest are good songs but they don’t really stand out and in all honesty they could have been from any average power metal album. So a bit of a disappointment as I was hoping for something more majestic, something more powerful, a rock opera of some dimension but this is nothing of that.

It is a good power metal album, nothing more and nothing less.