SKYLARK — Twilights of Sand (review)

Album · 2012 · Power Metal

1/5 · 2012-03-26
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Twilights of Sand is the ninth studio album from Italian power metal band Skylark. The 2012 album marks the band’s first studio album to be released since 2007’s Divine Gates Part 3: The Last Gate. It’s also the first album to feature the vocals of new lead singer Ashley. Ashley is the group’s third lead singer, but only the second female singer, as the group was for a long time a male fronted act (and then a dual male/female fronted act, then finally just a female fronted act). Although I’ve been aware of Skylark for some time now, Twilights of Sand marks my first encounter with their music.

Based on this album, it may also be my last. That’s not to say that overall the album lacks anything to be praised, it does have a few positive aspects to it but the problem here is that nothing seems to be coming together very well on any level. First off the album gets off on completely the wrong foot with the symphonic introductory track The Tears of Jupiter. As far as intros go it isn’t too bad, with a mix of spoken words and actual singing, so it does have a bit more effort put into it than most intro tracks. The problem with it is not that it feels so introductory, as far as those go it has credibility, but because the symphonic sound does nothing for me. It sounds synthetic, in that it’s there because it can be there, sort of thing. There’s nothing epic about it in the slightest.

But enough about a track that doesn’t even last two minutes. The next track, Tobe! Glendizer, only makes matters worse. I’m not sure what language this is in, and I’m not even convinced it’s not a load of nonsense, even sticking lines of the lyrics in Google Translate didn’t provide much clue, coming up with a different language for each line. Regardless it’s not the lyrics that bother me here, it’s that the whole track sounds utterly ridiculous. It reminds me more of some daft sing-along song in a little children’s TV show. You know the sort, no matter if you have kids yourself or just remember them for your own childhood, it’s the sort that will drive the parents up the wall. That’s what this song sounds like, only it has a power metal riff going on through it. Since they included a version of the track especially designed for karaoke as a bonus track on the Japanese version of the album I’m not sure that wasn’t the intent. The track is in no way entertaining and it’s not even power metal cheese in a good way. It is the worst track I’ve heard for some time though. I guess that’s a (dubious) achievement of its own. Unfortunately although this is definitely the most prominent case, I also get the whole children’s music vibes off of some of the other songs on the album, although in those cases it’s more the case of the vocal tone and more use of those synthetic keys.

Fortunately for the band and my ears things pick up with Twilights of Sand’s third track, The Princess and Belzebu. Not by much, but at least enough to save my sanity. Up to this point Twilights of Sand hasn’t given the listener much of a real experience about what it’s about; that only really starts here, and what we’re dealing with is keyboard driven Euro power metal. Now I’m a fan of the power metal genre, and I’ll defend it when it gets insulted as it often does from supposed metalheads who don’t have a clue what they’re talking about, but Twilights of Sand is one of those albums that quite legitimately gives the genre a bad name.

What we’re talking here is not something that is typical cheesy power metal, because it’s really not cheesy sounding at all, it’s because the sound the band puts across is not working. First off the production job is pretty bad, which lets the material that is stronger down a fair bit, and although she had a decent voice, there are many moments on the album where it doesn’t sound as if Ashley has a voice that is cut out for metal. Some of the tones she comes out with sound like something I expect to hear in a commercial pop song, which is especially apparent in the non-metal parts of the album. I reiterate that she does have a good voice, and when her singing does work with the material it works really well, but more often than not the vocals and the music just seem out of sorts with each other. The only actual criticism I have for her actual vocals though is when she tries to hit the high notes. It’s very clear listening to those that she doesn’t quite have that range, and it shows.

That coupled with how patchy the actual material is makes the album something of a drag to get through. Its highlights stand out well because of this, but there’s nothing on offer that moves beyond merely good territory. I’d say Love Song is the best song here and She and Mystery of the Night are also pretty good but in general the album ranges from above average to very bad. Some of the tracks are just too long and outstay their welcome. But the biggest problem with this album is that it’s generally boring. The good moments are too few and far between to save it. After those first two tracks have gone by there isn’t anything offensively bad but at the same time the lack of real moments of epic awesomeness even in a cheesy way is what makes Twilights of Sand a really lacking album for power metal.

I haven’t heard much power metal from this year yet, but I’m sure that there are going to be a lot of stronger offers in the field that do the genre justice. I’d say for Twilights of Sand however a below average/fans only rating is most appropriate.

3.9/10

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