Xandria - "Salomé - The Seventh Veil"

Tracks:
01. Save My Life
02. Vampire
03. Beware
04. Emotional Man
05. Salomé
06. Only for the Stars (in Your Eyes)
07. Firestorm
08. A New Age
09. The Wind and the Ocean
10. Sisters of the Light
11. Sleeping Dos Lie
12. On My Way


Band:
Lisa (Vocals)
marco (Guitar)
Philip (Guitar)
Nils (Bass)
Gerit (Drums)


Discography:
India (2005)
Ravenheart (2004)
Kill The Sun (2003)


Guests:
Mika Taurinen (Vocals)


Links:
xandria.de
myspace
drakkar

All good in the beginning when Lisa yells out save my life and I can't do anything but agree. It gets tougher then as Vampire begins with poppy sound that reminds more of record company products then Xandria. The band may have awful lyrics at best and Vampire is definitely not an exception to that but it is an exception musically since it is not a good song and it continues like that time and again.

There are many great songs on Salomé but they are equal in number as the poorer tracks that make the album sink further down the grades. To be fair, I had huge expectations for this album since the previous albums had blown me away, musically not lyrically, with their melodic heavy metal with semi-operatic female vocals and some classical arrangements. The sound of Xandria have always been fresh and interesting in its melodic landscape, but Salomé is more of a landslide that in large parts destroys the landscape. It isn't all bad, songs like Salomé, Save My Life, Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, Sisters of the Light and maybe some other one makes this landscape hold most of the shape and become somewhat of a disappointment but not a huge disaster as it had potential to become if you listen to songs like i.e Vampire or Firestorm.

Have you ever been inside a plane? That is actually the starting line of Firestorm, it is really poor and not to mention the now totally chainsawed Vampire, I don't even want to think about it. Still, in all intents and purposes: it isn't all that bad like I may have made it out to look. It is well worth your ear, the poorer songs aren't truly that poor, just very poor considering Xandria's previous material like ‘India’ or ‘Ravenheart’.

I would still deeply recommend ‘India’ as a buy over this one. Half hit and half filling is what will rattle your teeth when playing this album aloud.

official website

Read Caj's review>>

Label - Drakkar
Three similar bands - Nightwish/Within Temptation/After Forever
Rating: HHHHHHH
Reviewer: Daniel Källmalm