Terra Nova
Ring That Bell

Terra Nova, that is a novel name, or a name that should promise novelty. Ring that Bell is their seventh album, they released the first back in 1996, so they have been on it for a while. And they are taking their time with the album releases, seven in 35 years isn’t the highest of tempos. Good-looking cover, and I read in the press material that they are very melodic – comparable to Jourey or Styx, two bands that I like, especially the latter one and their late seventies-early eighties stuff. So, it should be good?

The first thing that strikes me is how dated the album sounds, like it was produced a long time ago and not in the twenties. But you get used to that and it is almost like listening to an older album. The songs are melodic and catchy, the singer is a classic rock singer, and he sounds good. The variation over the songs is big for the genre, the playing time is near the hour though, and that is a bit long. I think that they should have kept it shorter, as it gets a bit too much – especially as it doesn’t redefine the genre from any perspective, neither creatively nor in quality.

It is a good album; the songs are good and catchy. Of course, you can argue that the sound is a negative, and in a way it is – but it isn’t that big of a flaw. The bigger flaw is the same as most other bands these days, the lack of novelty, lingua nova hadn’t been too wrong for a band calling itself the new world – but nothing like that. You can take lack of novelty if it is really great, I can name many examples of that, but then you need some amazing hit songs, and there is none like that here either. So, it is a fairly ordinary album in many regards, it has good songs but doesn’t stand out.

Perhaps it isn’t for me they ring the bell, or perhaps they just aren’t interesting enough to stand out from the masses. Music is quickly being diluted by so much stuff that it is sometimes hard to know. But I do know that if you like the similar bands there is a decent chance that you will find this album agreeable, it is worth checking out if you consider yourself such a person.

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