Yes, the title has me worried, but any cynicism and derision which some reviewers could be accused of (OK, I’m not exactly excluding myself here either) should be banned for the rest of this review. Symphonity are deadly serious, and their chosen historical subject matter intelligently researched, so therefore I’ll show them equal respect and approach this album with an open mind – hell, I might even learn something! After all, 30 years ago a certain band called Savatage released “Streets: A Rock Opera” onto a very dubious and mistrusting Metal audience, then over the coming years that epic album has had no end of influence on anyone from Avantasia to Nightwish and beyond, and now a ‘Metal Opera’, or soundtrack style concept album appears quite regularly. And this here is Symphonity’s offering.

Melodic Symphonic Power Metal is of course the order of the day…or year…OK, 13th Century (see, learnt something already!) and this album comes resplendent with narration, orchestration, occasional traditional instruments, guest Mezzo Soprano vocals, kitchen sink – yep, it’s all here. Symphonity even have two male lead singers – which is almost a travesty to be hogging two when some bands will struggle to find just one of this amazing quality, but it certainly gives the arrangements yet another dimension…as if they needed one. This is an album that feels like it has been many years in the making, such is its depth and involvement.

Reviewing this album concisely is kind of impossible. There is so much going on, much of it at the same time in one way or another – there’s theatrical narration, numerous guest musicians and vocalists (great to hear Herbie Langhans in there as one of the guests – especially given that he used to be lead singer for the band in the none too distant past), fabulous keyboard work, dazzling guitar, thunderous rhythms, soaring anthemic choruses, heartfelt ballads and of course powerful Symphonic Metal. Usually, this is enough for many bands tackling this kind of album, but Symphonity don’t stop there. Not only do they nail all the former, but to further emphasise the story line they squeeze in some traditional instruments from the areas of the world Polo visited on his travels all those years ago.

The soundtrack approach of this album has the initial feel of a lavish double-part epic album set, but personally I like that it isn’t and that it’s just a normal album length. It would be easy to spin these songs out, but each arrangement is packed with interest and rarely for an album so involved, I wanted to play it all again immediately to hear what I must have missed. And again and again for that matter, because it takes serious talent to conjure up an opus like this and whether you feel an inner desire to sneer or judge the band for attempting something as adventurous as this, the truth is that they did attempt it, achieved what they set out to do, did a bloody good job of it and can justifiably be very proud of the end result. Basically though, if I really must be concise, I guess I’d say that if you saw the words “Symphonity – Marco Polo: The Metal Soundtrack” and thought “Hey, that sounds like my kind of thing”, then it probably is and I promise you that you will not be disappointed – I know I wasn’t.

(8.5/10 Andy Barker)

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https://symphonity.bandcamp.com/album/marco-polo-the-metal-soundtrack