Emerald
Restless Souls

Today we go green and I don’t mean environmentally friendly but a band that goes in green graphically, obviously. It is Swiss band Emerald that I am writing about, a band with a decent haul of albums out already and according to a review site I actually respect it is a rather generic album from a generic band. I am of course not one to judge from what others think so I have given this album many spins and as it is the first time I hear them I wouldn’t be influenced by them doing the same over and over but can see this album for what it is. But after many times playing it I am still not sure what it is, it doesn’t really connect with me.

Power metal or heavy metal is what it is, melodic and catchy – no surprises really as the cover and logo suggests that they sound exactly as they sound. They have a singer that isn’t uncommon for the genre; he is pretty okay but nothing spectacular. Exactly the same can be written to describe the production; it is decent but not spectacular. It would be wrong to describe this as an album that shows variation, it is the common variation for an album of the power metal genre – we get the songs that could be expected. To suggest that this band offers something fresh, new, or a sense of novelty would be an exaggeration of epic proportions. But to suggest that it wasn’t a solid production would be almost a similar exaggeration as you can’t really complain, they don’t do a bad production.

What they do is to make an album that doesn’t really excite or grab the attention of the music fanatic, there are so many power metal albums out there that are better, catchier, fresher, more exciting – they don’t really tick any of the most important boxes. If the target is to avoid making a disastrous album they have managed really well but most bands that I listen to make decent productions so that isn’t really worth that much as a majority of albums I review are in the same quality bracket as Emerald and most of them are more interesting as well. You may claim that I am wrong but you have to either extremely new to the genre or deaf to claim that these guys offer any sense of novelty and I don’t think that I am alone to want a sense of novelty in a new album that I listen to for the first time.

Restelss Souls is simply a generic power metal album, you will not hate it but you will not adore it either. The best choice to be green would have been to avoid producing physical copies of this album as that seems like a waste of resources for an album that is most likely not going to be played more than once or twice. Perhaps the Emerald guys should take a few steps back, look at the box and try to make some moves outside it in the future; more of a freskshow is desired for next time. Restless Souls isn’t a bad album but it isn’t a good one either.

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