Wind Rose
Shadows Over Lothadruin

Wind Rose is a fairytale metal band (I just invented the genre Fairytale Metal now) from lo and behold, Italy which is the land of the ancient forests of elves and all of that. One might suspect that they are inspired by fellow wanderers in those forests Rhapsody with whom they share cover artist and style of cover painting. Moreover they use a fantasy story to build their music around, as well as parts with spoken words and silly sounds as well as weird pauses in songs to do something for the story presumably. I wonder what it is about fantasy that captures those italian musicians, nothing against fantasy but the concept bores me to tears and I did fall asleep when watching the dreadful Lord of the Rings movie in the cinema. But fantasy tend to lend itself to some amazing musical spectacles with symphonies and larger than life compositions, that can be really something when done well. So what does the yellowing pages of the story of this debut album contain?

It does contain sixteen tracks of which seven are interludes, at first glance that would seem a bit excessive. But the music itself would also seem a bit excessive looking at a playing time of nearly seventy minutes, I myself who tend to be allergic to albums with too many tracks (twelve is usually an upper limit) and playing times over forty five minutes. But of course I am a professional so I took my time to get to know this album and what I found out is that it is brilliantly produced with a clear and really good sound, the singer is also very good and does not show too much of that horrific accent that Rhapsody for instance is giving us. The interludes come as breaks and sort of interrupts the experience of listening to the songs, also there are some strange pauses and breaks in several of the songs. I assume they are to tell the story or something like that, not too much variation on this album but it might just be a sensation due to long playing time and the interludes interrupting the flow a bit.

I think that it feels like they have done everything in their power to set music to a story rather than tell a story with music, there are just too many interruptions and the experience of listening to this album becomes a bit fragmented and you often tend to have difficulty really enjoying the good songs that are on this album. I would say that they fall into the same trap as Rhapsody does and “epifies” everything too much which leads to a sense of silliness rather than one of an epic story. The difference though is that Rhapsody are very grande and majestic while Wind Rose feels a bit more like a bedtime storyteller.

There are many good things about this album, the songs are generally good and the vocals are as well, the sound is excellent. Just this problem with a playing time that is way too long and that they allow the story to dictate too much which leads to them resorting to my sworn enemy: the spoken word part that Rhapsody love so much to ruin their music with. Sure Wind Rose has a way better voice than Christopher Lee but even though those parts are not that many they still bother, but at least it isn’t the vomit man speaking which is a plus point on their countrymen. But you can actually tell stories in music without speaking, look at Thy Majestie’s ShiHuangDi as a recent example and all the stories by Arjen Lucassen, they don’t use spoken words and their work is miles ahead of this. Sure that is not only because of the spoken words, there are other aspects in it as well.

A decent debut though despite all my complaining, they just need to address this playing time and spoken words issue. If they do they will be quite interesting I think as they make very good music which they then ruin by doing what I have just said. But sure if you love fairytales amongst the teddybears at bedtime I am sure this will be a story to cherish for you, if you aren’t I suggest you look elsewhere for your stories, maybe Holland.