Leaves' Eyes: Sign of the Dragonhead

April 2016 saw classically trained Finnish vocalist Elina Siirala succeed Liv Kristine at the microphone stand out in front of Leaves' Eyes. Following the Fires in the North EP, which apparently sold out immediately, Sign of the Dragonhead is the first full album featuring the new line-up. The record company clearly have high hopes for the album and are practically wetting themselves in their hyperbolic press release; "Perfectly coordinated instrumentation – never top-heavy, always unconventional. Medieval nyckelharpas, fiddles, uilleann pipes and whistles blend naturally with the Metal guise, creating catchy songs such as 'Shadows In The Night' and 'Völva', which whisks its listeners away to the mythical world of the seeresses and sorceresses of the Northern countries."

Ok! In my review of the Fires in the North EP I said that the Leaves' Eyes, with Elina Siirala on vocals did, "not suffer in comparison with her predecessor and the band definitely has a future with their new singer on this evidence." I absolutely stand by that assertion in 2018. In fact, I think they may have even cracked the main problem I have had with their albums previously, namely, a bloody great tune which stands out from the rest and interpolates the listener into the rest of the album.

The nearest they've had in my opinion was their cover of Mike Oldfields's "To France" from their Meredead album. On Sign of the Dragonhead they've only gone and written two stellar tunes of their own! These would be "Völva", which I descried in my notes as, "powerful and Nightwishy with growls," and my favourite track on the record, "Riders on the Wind", which starts off like Big Country and morphs into Meat Loaf thereafter! "Fairer than the Sun" is a neat ballad and "Fires in the North" mixes Alexander Krull's guttural growls nicely alongside Elina Siirala's lovely soprano to mesmerizing effect and whilst there are some really, really sniffy reviews of this album out there I think it's one of Leaves' Eyes' better ones.

Track Listing:
01. SIGN OF THE DRAGONHEAD
02. ACROSS THE SEA
03. LIKE A MOUNTAIN
04. JOMSBORG
05. VÖLVA
06. RIDERS ON THE WIND
07. FAIRER THAN THE SUN
08. SHADOWS IN THE NIGHT
09. RULERS OF WIND AND WAVES
10. FIRES IN THE NORTH
11. WAVES OF EUPHORIA

Added: January 13th 2018
Reviewer: Simon Bray
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 1132
Language: english

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