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Russell Allen: The
charismatic voice behind the microphone
of the prog metal heroes, Symphony
X. An amazing singer with unlimited
performing abilities, very famous
to the majority of progressive metal
fans not only because of his big career
with Symphony X but also with his
participation in successful projects
such as Ayreon and Star One(both projects
of the "big" Arjen Lucassen).
Jorn Lande: his recent albums with
Masterplan and the excellent ones
with Ark before them have made him
very popular lately. His "warm"
and special way of singing just gives
you the chills! A man with a lot of
albums filling his biography note
and a very energetic and hardworking
person. Magnus Karlsson: a most gifted
musician and an excellent guitar player,
just check his work with Last Tribe
or his latest album with Starbreaker
if you're not convinced, with
his future being very promising and
full of hopes for a brilliant career.
When these three
fine gentlemen decide to unite their
powers what can be the final result?
"The Battle" of course,
which is the title of the album of
a new project that is consisted by
the above mentioned people. Truth
is that the creation of projects like
this are very common lately but this
collaboration of two of the finest
and most expressive voices in worldwide
rock/metal scene was something that
attracted my attention by the first
time I heard about it! So, what do
they offer us with their "Battle"?
The album is a fine example of melodic
hard rock/metal with a few prog references.
"The Battle" contains
twelve songs, all composed by M.Karlsson
(the reason his name isn't mentioned
in the project's title I don't
really know, maybe it's a matter
of advertising). In half of these
songs Allen and Lande combine their
strength while the rest of them are
dealt out to each of them, three for
Allen and three for Lande. Now, is
there anybody out there that has got
any doupt about the excellent performance
of those two? I don't think
so! Their voices, so different and
at the same time so harmonized create
a wonderful atmosphere. Karlsson has
taken care of all the instruments
that you'll encounter here (with
the exception of Drums which are played
by J.Salazar) and he has done a very
good job with the keys but he earns
our congratulations for his amazing
guitar work. Ok, maybe the albums
isn't revolutionary and the
compositions included in it step on
already used ideas but Karlsson manages
to make the big difference by "enriching"
and "dressing" them with
clever and inspiring guitar play!
Great guitar passings, melodies, solos
and technique that give a progressive
tone in many compositions ."The
Battle" is a complete melodic
hard rock/metal album that has to
find a place in the collection of
every fan of this kind of music.
Allen VS Lande. Lande
VS Allen .So, who's the winner
of this "Battle"? In my
opinion none of them! I mean, of course
they are both winners with their co-partnership
in such a great project, but I think
that the real winner here is Magnus!
We all knew Allen and Lande before.
We knew their abilities and how fantastic
vocalists they are and this album
came to verify our opinion about them
but for Karlsson this one is a large
step forward in his way to worldwide
consecration. He gets better album
after album and I'm curious
how far he can go. Invest on this
with closed eyes! |
