PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
When you though symphonic metal couldn’t get any better, you discover a new band who raises the barrier once again. Introducing Ecliptica, an Austrian based metal band who really know how to put the power in power metal. Made up of six extremely talented musicians, Ecliptica combine: Chugging power chord based riffs, shimmering keyboard lines and a female and male dual vocal line to form so far one of the finest albums of 2012, from a band who are not so well known outside of their own country. Journey Saturnine is an album that offers hope that the rest of the world’s heavy metal scene is alive and thriving and through the awesome musicianship on this album proves why power metal is the greatest genre going!
Journey Saturnine is a musically stimulating album full of: Power, musical skill and raw emotion – giving it that special edge over
other power metal releases. You can tell that Ecliptica are in this, not for the money, but because of the love for the music. From the slow ballad like heart throb of ‘Love and Misery’, to the fast paced powerhouse that is ‘Fire! Burn!’. Ecliptica show why they are the new breed of metal heroes – showing off their skills as musicians, song writers and entertainers, by delivering astonishing examples of metal mastery.
You can clearly here influences of Nightwish, Sonata Arctica and Edguy in Ecliptica’s music and that’s the best bit, because on this one album, Ecliptica have single handedly proved they can write better songs than some of power metal’s leading pioneers. Up and coming, as well as mainstream power/speed and symphonic metal bands all should take a leaf out of Ecliptica’s books, listening to the chorus’s of ‘Dreamland’ and ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ while mopping in the octane fueled riffs of ‘Journey Saturnine’ and ‘Ready for a Ride’. If more bands wrote songs like these, then we would have nothing to fear about who would be the future of heavy metal. It is clear that Ecliptica are going to be huge, and Journey Saturnine is the magic carpet which will fly them into the big league.
Take away the music and you are left with the artwork. Yes, the artwork alone is a reason to buy this album. Although it may be simple, its gothic touch adds an extra dimension to the music. Depicting a scene from outer space and a moon which is transforming into a screaming girls face, the artwork really adds the cherry to the cake and makes this album all the more special.
Ecliptica are good enough to open for the likes of Rhapsody of Fire, Blind Guardian and Edguy, and hopefully within the next few years we will see the gradual rise of Ecliptica to power. Ecliptica are a band you need to check out as soon as possible and as soon as possible means as soon as you have read this…… GO OUT AND BUY THSI RECORD! [8/10]
