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AFM Records [Release date: 14.10.22]
First album in ten years from Swedish Power/Melodic Metal band, Dragonland.
A lot can change in ten years. A lot can stay the same. This is Dragonland expanded, more ambitious, with a finely developed movie music mentality.
Never to be ones without an imaginative concept, the band have developed a new sci-fi storyline for the Power Of The Nightstar.
Okay, the concept is not especially new, but Dragonland coat it with a polished sheen of freshness, with the introductory music referencing Holst in the space of two short minutes. We’re escaping a dying planet, boldly going etc etc. Titles like ‘Oblivion’ ‘Journey’s End’ and ‘Final Hour’ are something of a giveaway.
The current line up – Elias Holmlid (Keyboards), Anders Hammer (Bass), Jonas Heidgert (Vocals), Olof Mörck (Guitars), Jesse Lindskog (Guitars), Johan Nunez (Drums) – have delivered a cracking album that’s a long way from the old school power metal of their 2005 biggie, Starfall.
Smooth Symphonic Metal is the band’s newest currency, cruising through space on a huge swell of keyboards, fuelled by melodically measured neoclassical guitars, and led by Heidgert’s quivering vocals.
‘A Light In The Dark’, ‘Through Galaxies Endless’ and ‘Aphelion’ channel the spirits of the celluloid composers, like Zimmer and Williams, who’ve dominated the era.
It’s the kind of impassioned stuff that demands a big canvas, the band reaching for the epic on the blustery ‘Celestial Squadron’, with ‘Flight From Destruction’ and ‘The Scattering Of Darkness’ capturing the urgent, declamatory nature of the genre.
And Jacob Hansen once again burnishes his CV with another tightly mixed and mastered production. ****
Review by Brian McGowan
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