| CD REVIEW Golden Resurrection |
 |
Band : Golden Resurrection Those of you into Christian Rock/ Metal will hardly need an introduction to Swedish composer/ singer Christian Liljegren (also known as Christian Rivel at one time)...in fact, if you're into Symphonic Power Metal, there's a good chance you've come across one of his bands: Narnia (whom played their farewell gig around the time of this album's release), Audiovision, and DivineFire. In 2008 Christian started a new project with ReinXeed guitarist/ keyboardist/ backing singer Tommy Johansson, and pleased with the positive way things were goin' the two soon decided to found an actual band, recruiting keyboard player/ backing singer Olov Andersson (known from Audiovision and Grand Stand), bassist Stefan Käck (apparently no antecedents) and drummer Rickard Gustafsson (of Pantakrator). After perfecting (through rehearsal) the set of songs (composed mostly by Christian) that would make the recording sessions, the five of 'em secluded themselves in a studio with producer Erik Martensson (see Eclipse, W.E.T., and several nice A.O.R. Bands), whom also mixed the recordings and co-ordinated/ co-arranged the choir performances on the album. The end result was given a crystal clean sound at Masterplant by Michael Lind (known from having done the same on albums for Dio, Candlemass, Talisman, Lion's Share, the Poodles, and quite a few more). As a result, what you get is a masterpiece in the new Swedish Melodic Neoclassical Metal Explosion genre!hen the physical release date of the album was for some reason postponed for a month, fans of Liljegren and Johansson (who's band is rather popular in Japan) responded by completely depleting the first two pressings of the album before the release date of the album (well, you know, when a band signs its pre-release copies, that sometimes serves as a great incentive). Of course, they were aided in their choice by some very nice reviews in some of the bigger magazines (Japan's Burrn! Rating the album a nice 88 out of 100 points). But by all means, don't take my words or all the positive reactions of other people at face value...and go check out the band's MySpace page (www.) myspace.com/goldenresurrection, where the band posted videos to 3 of the album's songs, a full-length audio of the album opening “See My Commands”, and samples to 3 songs, other than the videos. I'm curious how long it'll take for you to get convinced! (Note with my personal rating: although not quite the rating which commands a nomination for my year-lists, this album will nevertheless be the best in its genre as far as I'm concerned...and to end the year with an album like that... Well, of course the working year ain't done for me yet, because where many people make use of the Christmas period for some holidays – among them our own editor-in-chief – there's still a pile of albums on my desk needing my attention!) 95/100 Tony. |