CLOUDSCAPE — New Era (review)

CLOUDSCAPE — New Era album cover Album · 2012 · Progressive Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
adg211288
New Era is the fourth album by Swedish metal act Cloudscape. The 2012 album is their first full-length since 2008’s Global Drama and in that time they’ve largely re-worked their line-up. Vocalist Michael Andersson and guitarist Patrik Svärd remain, but have been joined by new members Stefan Rosqvist (Fullforce), Håkan Nyander (Supreme Majesty) and Fredrik Joakimsson on guitars, bass and drums respectively.

Although you will most likely see Cloudscape included under the banner of progressive metal, New Era itself does not come across as being that progressive, at least in the normal sense of the term. It’s the sort of album that gives weight to the validity of the term ‘melodic metal’, as ambiguous as such a term sounds when written down. I’ve read that this is actually the term that Cloudscape favours for their music.

Of course that’s not to say that New Era isn’t progressive at all. It certainly has its moments. The simple fact is that prog is just one ingredient in Cloudscape’s sound and none of the established genres of metal really can apply to the album as a whole, although you could, I guess, say that this in itself is what makes New Era a progressive metal album. The common factor in the music though is Cloudscape’s sense for melody, which is why I find that I agree with them when they say they prefer melodic metal to describe what they do. It’s melodic, but is not dominantly power metal. It has more hard rock styled moments, but is undeniably a metal album overall. It is accessible in terms of its song-based sound, but doesn’t lack for instrumentation to keep the prog fan interested.

But regardless of what genre tag you wish to apply to the music, there is one undeniable constant – New Era is great melodic metal album that brings elements of many styles together into one well made and flowing style where as you are discovering the album you will never know exactly what direction will be taken next, whether it is the growl laden Share Your Energy (growling courtesy of Peter Wildoer), the oriental flavoured Kingdom of Sand, the power metal of Your Desire or the lengthy Voyager 9. New Era is perhaps in retrospect best described as an eclectic album full of lots of little subtleties that that reveal new aspects of the album every time it is played. Patience is advised for the more demanding prog fan for the album to give up the goods, but it is catchy enough that general metal and rock fans should be able to enjoy it regardless of how deep they wish to dig. A great album level rating is appropriate I think.

7.8/10

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org))
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