Saidian - For those who walk the path forlorn 2.5/5
Reviewed: 12-16-05
Tracklist:
1. The path forlorn
2. Burn down the night
3. Lonely nights
4. Silent killer
5. Heart of stone
6. Cry in the rain
7. Chains of time
8. The only one
9. Raging fire
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With a hot naked chick being the focal point of the cover artwork, this has got to be another one of those gothic metal bands right? Wrong. Saidian's debut 'For those who walk the path forlorn' is a power metal debut I learned of several months ago, but after seeing more negative words than positive, I held off on grabbing it until I recently had an opportunity to conveniently pick it up. The band's sound is very much in the genre we all know and love, somewhere between the power metal style of Stratovarius and the melodic metal style of the Kotipelto CDs. There are a lot of great guitar solos, keyboard solos (many times in a neo-classical manner), and as with a good portion of the power metal bands today, the music is quite symphonic.
Vocally, Markus (Engel) Engelfried, who has a good but not a mind-blowing voice, is in the high-pitched range and comes off as a mix of Patrick von Maurick from Montany and Andre Fischer from Ivory Tower. Actually, I get a slight Ivory Tower feel with the music as well, so those who have been unhappy with the lack of a recent Ivory Tower release may find some closure with this CD. I should mention however, that Saidian doesn't lean towards the progressive metal style of Ivory Tower at all, but there are moments throughout the CD where I'm reminded of the band.
As far as overall quality, all of the songs on the short 43-minute CD are good, but at the same time, all are unspectacular. There are numerous vocal and/or musical parts of every song that I really like, but not one song clicks as a whole, leaving me with not one favorite to mention. The band obviously has all the necessary pieces, and this ballad-free CD does provide some satisfying music with every single song. So for me, this has been a worthwhile purchase and I look forward to a 2nd CD that will hopefully showcase better songwriting. Fans of the bands discussed may want to give this CD a try, but I could see a lot of the strict and picky power metal fans throwing this one aside.
CLINT
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