Tarot
Gravity of Light

Tracks
01. Satan Is Dead
02. Hell Knows
03. Rise!
04. Pilot Of All Dreams
05. Magic And Technology
06. Calling Down The Rain
07. Caught In The Deadlights
08. I Walk Forever
09. Sleep In The Dark
10. Gone


Band:
Marco Hietala: Lead vocals, bass & acoustic guitars
Tommi Salmela: Samples & Lead vocals
Zachary Hietala: guitars
Janne Tolsa: keyboards
Pecu Cinnari: drums


Discography:
Spell of Iron (1986)
Follow Me into Madness (1988)
To Live Forever (1993)
To Live Again (Live 1994)
Stigmata (1995)
For the Glory of Nothing (1998)
Suffer Our Pleasures (2003)
Crows Fly Black (2006)


Guests:


Info
Recorded in November 2009. Mixed by Janne and Mikko Tegelman. Mastered by Mika
Jussila at the Finnvox Studio in January and February 2010.

Released 10/3-2010
Reviewed 19/5-2010


Links:
wingsofdarkness.net
myspace
nuclearblast

Finnish band Tarot with familiar from Nightwish, Marko Hietala in the front line is back with another studio album. An album called Gravity of Light which is a rather odd title since photons don’t really have any gravity but maybe they were referring to the sun or a star and then of course we do have loads of gravity all of a sudden.

Gravity is however, nothing that Tarot send out, they seem to gravitate towards bigger names from the same era, bands like Priest or Maiden. Musically they make standardised heavy metal according to the standard of ISO666. The band is also certified according to the recycling authorities to be a good environmental choice thanks to 99% recycled material. The album however fails to live up to the ISO9706 when it comes to longevity of the material. In short it is heavy metal according to all the framework that has been established during all the years the genre has existed.

The opening track called Satan is Dead is actually quite a good track really and surprisingly it has some trace of creativity which is always nice. Then after that it is quite unimaginative and uninteresting until the single track I Walk Forever which is a good track, sounds like much other stuff but it is still a good track no less.

With two good tracks and the rest completely uninteresting it is hard to care much for this album, the good tracks are just not reason enough to play this album. I find this album to be something for the pile of records I have that doesn’t really do anything.

I often question why bands release this kind of stuff, after all there is nothing new here, I know recycling is quite hip at the moment with the environment and everything. But, you still have to wonder why they waste resources then, I mean making new music also needs resources and why make music that has already been made many times before, it feels a bit like a waste.

Well, there is one proper way to get something out of this record and that is to buy the two prior mentioned tracks from iTunes and then skip the rest of the record, it is cheaper and you really get what is good from the record.

The Tarot cards just speak against Tarot the band and their future, it will probably not be that glorious.

HHHHHHH

Label - Nuclear Blast
Three similar bands - Nightwish/Judas Priest/Iron Maiden
Rating: HHHHHHH
Reviewer: Daniel Källmalm
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