Veonity
Elements of Power

There are no surprises when Veonity comes up with their fifth album, they offer the same brand of power metal as they have always done. They do it at the same level of quality as before as well, a peripheral listener will be hard pressed to find the differences between this and the predecessor, if there is any difference at all. The Swedes do power metal well in line with the format and don’t seem to have any desire to strive outside established parameters, and some probably say that it what it is all about while others might want to hear some evolvement. How fun would a TV series be if they showed roughly the same episodes without any character or story development? Is music any different, all bands that I have followed through their entire career has kept evolving, the others (and they are many) I have dropped along the way as similitude is boring.

Veonity are pretty boring, but it is impossible to say that they are bad as they are so ridiculously catchy as good power metal should be, and the songs are good. The problem is that there are so many bands like that around already, I reviewed Tristan Harders’ Twilight Theatre earlier today and those two albums are albums that I confuse as they sound about the same. The difference is that Tristan sings a little better and that Veonity has a more modern sound while Harders’ album looks back two decade to the style that was most common in the early 2000s – but on most part they sound the same, and they sound the same as hundreds, if not thousands of bands in the same genre. You can overdo something and that is what most power metal bands do.

I can’t give them a low rating for this album as they are good, and it is enjoyable to listen to the songs. But now that I have written this review I will never ever listen to this album again, like has been the case with the previous Veonity albums I have reviewed. They make good but very forgettable power metal, others have done and still do this genre better than Veonity. Still, I wouldn’t be very surprised if many power metal fans hail this one as great, it presses all the right buttons and walk those already trampled down paths that they enjoy listening to, and the ridiculous catchiness can’t be anything but positive. And that is well enough, but I doubt anyone will remember this album two or three years from now.

Veonity should dare to be different, all bands should. It is bands like this that makes me want to close Hallowed forever and spend my time doing something other than reviewing albums, not because they are bad but because they lack any kind of creativity – how hard, and creative is it to rewrite something that anyone else have already written? I would be surprised if it took them longer than 48 minutes to write this album.

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