BOREALIS — Fall From Grace (review)

BOREALIS — Fall From Grace album cover Album · 2011 · Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
voila_la_scorie
The sticker on the shrink wrap said "for fans of Kamelot, Evergrey..." and one more band. My impression is that this sounds like classic Symphony X meets Evergrey. According to a couple of reviews I read, this album is the midpoint of Borealis's transition from a power metal band to a progressive metal one.

Vocalist Matt Marinelli really does sound an awful lot like Tom S. Englund of Evergrey. The guitar sound is full, the bass adds appropriate weight, synthesizer is used as a support rhythm instrument or to give a symphonic feeling. The songs don't strike me as being too overly from the power metal fold and more - really more! - like Evergrey, though I have only one Evergrey album.

The music here is really solid, melodic heavy metal. There are some speedy or heavy riffs but contrasted with the symphonic sounds of the synthesizer and the strong vocal melodies. The progressive aspect is more in the song structures or playing skill rather than being an overt display of time-signature juggling or technical hocus pocus. I do agree that this is, from a musical and song-writing perspective, a very good album. Like, done by professionals who really know what they want to achieve. The main problem I have is how similar it sounds too Evergrey. I can't help but feel that I'm listening to an Everygrey recording!

Special mention should go to the acoustic track, "Watch the World Collapse", which is a lovely track and a nice diversion from all the heavy numbers. Then there's the bonus track, "The Journey" which is such a perfect wedding song and seriously must have been written as one!

This and the follow-up album, "Purgatory" are Borealis's two highest rated albums, scoring in the nineties on Encyclopedia Metallum. I think it's a solid product but the more I listen, the more I hear Tom S. Englund, and that might be putting me off the album more and more because the singer should be developing his own voice. That and I like Evergrey but don't love the band.
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