Band
Nuno Miguel Fernandes - vocals
Markus "Ulle" Ullrich - guitars
Kai Schindelar - bass
Richie Seibel - keyboards
Jürgen "Gen" Schrank - drums
Discography
Lanfear Demotape (1994)
Towers of February (1996)
Zero Poems (1999)
The Art Effect (2003)
aNother gOlden rAge (2005)
info
Engineered, mixed and mastered by Jan Vacik at Dreamscape studios, 2007/2008
Keys and bass recorded at "The Bolle", engineered by Richie Seibel
Vocals for 5, 8 and 9 recorded at The Red Room, engineered by Andy Horn
All songs published by Tasmanian Devil
Links:
lanfear.eu
myspace
locomotive
For me, there were no bells tolling, I had never heard the band or hardly about it even though we did Hallowed during the time when they were growing bigger fan groups in 2003-04.
The first impression about this record was seeing the cover and thinking it was something in the more extreme vein of the metallic genre, but I was wrong (fortunately). Musically this band is more of a hybrid between Evergrey and IQ with the IQ touches in the solos and the deeper, calmer parts and the Evergreyish feel in the hevier parts. This probably makes you who know these bands understand how it sounds, the rest of you, do not moan as I will explain. As I am an expert in the worldly art of wordy description of music by bands called Lanfear. Firstly we can say that the roots of this records is to be found in the intelligent melodical side of rock music with deep and intricate melodies, all this is mixed with brutal heavy and intricate riffing with heavy drumming and baselines all mixed together in a fashion that is quite unusual. Some will probably call this progressive metal, let them. I don’t really see the progressive as a real genre but those who do have some clue about what it is and the record company dubs this Titanic, sorry I meant to say progressive power metal. I am not really that much into genre bundling and the such but if I have to label it I’d say that what is usually called progressive metal is the term I would use.
As is tradition for the people venturing into this sub-genre, the production is as flawless as it can be; the power is there, the mood is there and captured as I would in my professional opinion think is the way the band wanted it. Instrumentally there is really only rarely you can complain about the quality of the instrumental performance and on this record a claim that the musicianship is terrible is really misplaced. I think the pieces are puzzled together in an excellent way, the pieces fit just terrifically together and makes up a great complete piece. I would actually salute all tracks as really good; that however, entails some problems as there really has to be some standout track that really makes you fully recall that thing and give the record a real place in the mind much like what the old greats managed to create over the years.
I would also like to take the opportunity to issue a warning: this record isn’t suitable for you who do not like what falls under the progressive metal label. If you are in that category you do the right choice to avoid this. However, if you are of other opinion about that label, then this is really something for you to explore.
This is a record that allows some deep exploring of its many layers, after about 15 listen-throughs I can say I am starting to know it, and can say that it doesn’t bore and it does also hold up its own for this many listens in a short while. And, it doesn’t only hold up, I keep on exploring new angles every time I listen to this record. Even though I can’t be said to be done with it really as there is more to know about this music, there is a time to call it done and this time is now as I have lots more records to go through and it keeps building up slowly.
Now then, get yourselves down to the record shelves and buy this record as it is well worth your money, Lanfear has proven that even though you are a nameless hidden band, you can still make great music because great music is just what we are listening to here and now.
I would say that even though blood money is on this and the whole thing is being watched by the feds it is still a wonderful record that surely would be worth every penny you can think you would spend it on.
HHHHHH