Selenseas
The Outer Limits

Label: Rockshots Records
Three similar bands: Sonata Arctica/Edguy/Lost Horizon

Rating: HHHHHHH (3/7)
Reviewer: Daniel Källmalm

Tracks
1. Intro
2. Hope
3. Frigate
4. Time
5. Asgard
6. The Revenge of the Ifrit
7. Dante
8. The Mirror
9. The Flame of Dawn
10. The Milky Way
11. The Outer Limits
Bonus Tracks:
12. The Mirror (Radio Edit)
13. The Milky Way (Alternative Version)


Band:
Mikhail Kudrey - Vocals
Vladislav Tyushin – Bass
Denis Andrianov – Guitars
Ivan Lisitsyn – Guitars
Liudmila Malaya – Drums
Svetlana Tyushina – Keyboards


Discography:
Za gran’yu vozmozhnogo (2017)


Guests:
Andrey Zodchiy – backing vocals, vocals arrangements (2-10, 12, 13)
Gamil Makhmutov – guitars, solo improvisation (2 – 13)
Aleksey Verbitsky - guitar solo (9, 11)
Mariya Skryabina – flute (6)
Sergei Lazar – vocals (6)
Ivan Garin - sound designer (keyboards)


Info:
Produced by Selenseas
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Sergei Lazar at CDM Records
Cover artwork,by Oleg [Voodoo] Shcherbakov
Photos by Edaliana Rennenkampf & Dasha Khovanski

Released 2020-08-07
Reviewed 2020-08-17

Links:
selenseas.com
youtube

rockshots records


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So, an album called The Outer Limits with a really attractive artwork and song titles like The Milky Way and some other exciting things just have to be great. I read that they are Russian and that they did release an album in Russian before this using the shitgoogle translate I find that that album has the same song titles as this one, it is only the title track that is different, perhaps due to a different translation, we all know that google isn’t worth shit when it comes to doing things well but chances are that this is their 2017 debut translated into English. I leave finding out if that is the case to you, but what about this album called The Outer Limits? They compare them with bands like Edguy and Sonata Arctica, two bands that I used to like but that have long since outlived their usefulness by turning into dull copies of themselves.

So, how about it? It is power metal and generic power metal at that. With generic vocals and production, there are no surprises and it could be something from any old and now irrelevant power metal band’s catalogue. There is nothing here that feels original here, there are no fresh ideas and no sense of novelty just a bland gaggle of power metal songs. The playing time and variation is pretty okay though and what they do is decent craftsmanship, but not very exciting.

I find myself not really paying attention, not really listening, not really being grabbed by this album. One of those albums that just is, you play it and forget it. Kind of like the later stuff of Sonata Arctica or Edguy that the label compares them with. I kind of want to like these guys as they are from a more exotic place for the metal, but they don’t really seem to bring anything of that place into their music as this could have been any German or central European power metal band’s rejects. They are good at copying what others have already done, but how about coming up with some fresh ideas?

Haven’t I heard this stuff before? That is what I think, I don’t want music to be predictable or déjà vu, I want bands to kick you hard or hit you in the face – just not do the generic, it has been done to death already. Maybe you’ll like it if you haven’t gone through hundreds of power metal albums already, but I ask myself what’s the point of just another useless and generic album. It doesn’t even have a standout hit song. But sure, if you like the power metal genre and all that falls within that there is a chance that you find this agreeable – all I like is the artwork. The music isn’t bad, just not very good.

HHHHHHH