Symphonic Metallers Xandria underwent a bit of a change with last year’s “Neverworld’s End”. It wasn’t a major change but for fans of the band it was a change none the less. I loved their debut “Kill The Sun” way back in 2003, a really fresh, personal take on the whole female-fronted Gothic Metal genre, and their follow-up was a good continuation of their style. Subsequent releases tended to lean progressively further towards the more melodic direction of say Edenbridge, but last year, with a new singer on board they unleashed an album that I described at the time as the best Nightwish album since “Once”. It was meant as a compliment, but I suppose it could also be taken that the band had lost some of their own identity – even if the album was pretty damn fine.
So I guess I was hoping that the band had got the whole “Look, we can do Nightwish” thing out of their system and on “Sacrificium” would start to explore their own identity. And with another new singer on board the epic Ten minute first track ” isn’t particularly Nightwish at all, nope, it’s so epic, it’s Epica! It’s impressive, and by no means a rip-off, just a very similar facsimile…and actually a bloody good song! The choirs are well done, the drums are huge and the orchestration top notch, but let’s face it, Epica are still doing whole albums like this so I was pleased to hear that there are elements of their previous identity scattered around and the next track is more along the lines of their previous album (after all, Nightwish DON’T sound like this any more), but the main difference is that the new vocalist has a sound that incorporates elements of Simone, Tarja AND original singer Lisa. This is basically the styles throughout, is very good news indeed and musically it means the band can explore all Symphonic Metal avenues a little more readily. For instance, musically ‘Dreamkeeper’ reminds me of Sonata Arctica, and there’s more than a little Stratovarius in ‘Stardust’. The band are nicely mixing it up.
OK, one or two tracks maybe overstep the similarity boundaries (‘The Undiscovered Land’, despite having quite a nice chorus seems to be a cut-out-and-keep of Nightwish ballads), however this is immediately offset by the following track ‘Betrayer’ being a half Power Metal pile-driver, half Symphonia hybrid that is unlike anything I’ve heard the band do before – great stuff! Another highlight has to be the catchy ‘Little Red Relish’, with it’s velcro-chorus – this is the closest on “Sacrificium” to Xandria of old and really great to hear. Also, there’s a little bit of Folk Metal to ‘Temple Of Hate’ which reminds me of Arven and works well too. The album closer is a Piano/vocal (plus some gorgeous violin!) sombre piece that might possibly be the best ballad the band have done to date. It’s slightly dark, a little sinister, yet optimistic and heartfelt. An unexpected way to close a very accomplished album.
I’m not sure Xandria have quite discovered a new identity that is truly their own yet, but if they keep making albums of this quality and get some continuity with the vocalists I’m sure it will come. And it will be a very enjoyable to travel that journey with them.
(7.5/10 Andy Barker)
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