Comments:
German outfit Saidian was founded by keyboardist Markus Bohr. Like
many of the Metal Heaven releases, Saidian has elements of Progressive,
Melodic and Speed Metal oozing from their music.
For
Those Who Walk The Path Forlorn begins with a typical metal intro
entitled “The Path Forlorn (Intro)." This is a 1 minute
7 second keyboard fanfare leading to the bombastic “Burn Down
The Night.” Instantly, Stratavarious comes to mind as your ears
are filled with tons of double kick drum and huge power cords. Vocalist
Markus Engelfried has the high pitched metal voice that is best suited
for this kind of music. His performance is spot on. One has no trouble
figuring out that the founding member of Saidian is keyboardist Markus
Bohr, as the keyboards are everywhere, sometimes distracting from
the general concept of the song as is the case with the next song
“Lonely Nights” which leans more toward the melodic side
of metal.
At
first “Lonely Nights” sounds like it's going to have more
of a focus on guitar, but halfway through the guitar solo we get keyboard
solo to go with it, even though the song really doesn’t need
it. “Heart Of Stone” has an unnecessary keyboard build-up,
but once it gets going is one of the highlights of the album. “Heart
Of Stone” demonstrates the band's ability to lock down to a grove
while giving us tons of double bass. What really stands out is that
while the song is actually a mid-tempo affair, you have a speed metal
feel. It’s a very cool and unique sound that really shows the
potential of the band. “Rageing Fire," the album's closing
track, has a Stratavarious or Royal Hunt feel to it, full of time
changes, double base and kick your ass vocals.
For
Those Who Walk The Path Forlorn is a neo-classical album that
could have been a collaboration with the great Yngwie Malmsteen if
in fact Yngwie was able to share the spotlight with other musicians.
This is a heavily keyboard influenced affair that may not be for everyone.
Understanding that is a keyboardist band, it would be nice if the
keyboards were scaled back a bit, adding a bit more guitar in their
place for the next album. …For Those Who Walk The Path Forlorn
is a wonderfully produced album. While the songs are cumbersome at
times, the performances are excellent. This is a very good beginning
for a band that will hopefully be around for a long time.
Band
members:
Vocals: Markus Engelfried
Guitars: Rodrigo Blattert
Bass: Manuel Glassmann
Drums: Stefan Dittrich
Keyboards: Markus Bohr
Track listing:
The Path Forelorn (Intro)
Burn Down The Night
Lonely Nights
Silent Killer
Heart Of Stone
Cry In The Rain
Chains Of Time
The Only One
Raging Fire
HRH
Rating: 7.2/10
Advertisements:
