Review Coronatus - Fabula Magna 2009

The band with two ladies singing their songs are back with their third album in as many years, 18/12-2009 they released this album called Fabula Magna. Actually the duality seems to be something Coronatus has loads of, twin guitars, twin singers, all albums have titles in two words and they sing songs in two languages. Maybe the number two is their triumph number even though this is their third offering to the piles of metal records that is released in the world.

Some things has changed since their latest record called Porta Obscura, they have a new female singer in Lisa and their sopran singer Carmen has changed her last name from Schäfer to something starting with an L. Changing band members is something they seem to do all the time, since Porta Obscura they have also changed one of the instrumentalists as well, that they had actually done when I spoke with them shortly after Porta Obscura was released even. Change is also something that seems to be happening a lot when it comes to Coronatus.

However, musically they have not really changed in any significant way, they still play the same melodic power metal with loads of influences from the more classical styles of music so nothing has really changed there. They use one vocalist with soprano style vocals and one singer more traditional rock style, both female which is rather different from other bands but the same as they have done on all their prior albums so no change there even if the female vocalists have changed quite a lot over the years. They change when it comes to band members and they rather evolve than change when it comes to the musical side of things.

This record feels like a bit of an evolvement from Porta Obscura, the sound is a bit more mature and the songs more thought over than the ones before but there is still something missing from Porta Obscura. The chemistry between the two singers don’t feel as good as it was before and the top songs are not as good either, they lack something that I cannot quite put my finger on, the X-factor perhaps. As I don’t have expectations on any records I cannot be disappointed but I can think that some people expecting this to be the same monster as Porta Obscura might be a little disappointed. It has some hit songs like Tantalos, How Far Will You Go and Josy but they fall a bit behind the hits from Porta Obscura.

Still this does not in any respect mean that this is a poor record, rather the opposite, but it has to compete with its predecessor and that will always be a problem for it as it is just not that good. Sure my favourite song from the record Tantalos is fantastic and so is Josy which end the record but neither of those are as good as Mein Herz, Exitus, Falle, Strahlende Erste and so on. So in that respect we have to look at Fabula Magna as a little step back in quality but that is one small step and it cannot really be seen as something to be disappointed about as it is such a good record. One of the best records in 2009.

Fabula Magna is melodic and powerful with great songs and it is a record that is great to listen to. None of the songs feel like fillers and a few are fantastic, the record is not too long and it has a great production. It also has to compete with its predecessor and that is really the main problem for this record as Porta Obscura is an amazing record which really struck me as a listener and they cannot quite repeat that thing with this record. I think the main reason for me liking this record slightly less than the predecessor is the fact that I don’t feel the singers fit together as well. There is something in the vocal part that makes a difference between these two albums.

In the end I feel I miss Ada Fletcher who suited the sound fantastically on Porta Obscura, new girl Lisa is just not quite as good, she is amazing but not as good.

Fabula Magna is a fantastic record, one of the best in 2009 but it is not as good as Porta Obscura and that is the main problem for this record, I’d rather chose Porta Obscura over it any day of the week.

The song is from the earlier record

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