Neopera: Destined Ways

Founded by guitarist and driving force of German metal band Dark Age, Joern Schubert, and featuring Dirk Schlaechter, longtime bassist for German metal heroes, Gamma Ray, Neopera certainly have a bit of pedigree within their ranks. With a name like Neopera they can only really dabble in one genre which is, of course the very 2004 female-fronted symphonic metal world. Don't get me wrong, it's one of my favourite genres and this release is very much up my strasse (see what I did there?)but it is debatable if Neopera bring anything radical to the metaphorical table.

Led by the aforementioned Schubert who gives a guitar master class on the title track Neopera are described by their people as, "The ultimate fusion of classical music and modern heaviness…very apt at avoiding genre classifications, clichés and the usual tags, instead they have concocted an amalgamation of a vast array of emotions. Sometimes tender and fragile, aggressive and fierce the next instant." I'd tend to suggest that this album's greatest fault is actually the lack of playing around with genre conventions. Clearly Nina Jiers' soprano voice is wonderful and at its very best on "Falling Water" which is one of the more restrained tracks on the disc and perhaps if the kitchen sink wasn't thrown at the rest of the tracks then this release would stand out more in a crowded marketplace.

Ooh…look there's some growls…. That's been vastly overdone recently…there just isn't enough here to make Neopera look any different from say Leaves' Eyes, Xandria or Epica but this is unquestionably a solid release for fans of the genre who should lap it up. If they band are happy remaining fairly cultish then they can continue down this path and it would probably be worth Schlaechter's time when not performing with Gamma Ray, however, if they want to take the next step up the commercial ladder they may have to compromise and cut down song lengths and some of the excesses. It is entirely up to them. Whilst they contemplate the situation this is a decent debut album.

Track Listing
1. The Marvel of Chimera
2. A Call to Arms
3. Remote
4. Destined Ways
5. Falling Water
6. The Greed
7. Error
8. Last Pantomime
9. Equilibria
10. Requiem
11. Song of Revenge
12. The Unspeakable

Added: August 29th 2014
Reviewer: Simon Bray
Score:
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 2098
Language: english

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