EXCALION — Waterlines (review)

Album · 2007 · Power Metal

4/5 · 2011-09-25
Diogenes

Power metal from Finland? Whoopie. High-pitched vocals, lame ballads, double bass patterns that give new meaning to the word “repetition,” half-assed riffs…If there’s a horse that’s been beaten to death and then some, it’s the Finnish power metal scene. Fortunately, that’s not what Excalion is all about, and their sophomore effort Waterlines is a diamond in the rough in the cheese category.

The music on Waterlines isn’t exactly groundbreaking; I guarantee that you’ve heard most of the stuff on here before. The songs have fairly simple structures, keyboards play a large role, and the music is largely based on melody rather than shredding. Nothing new…and yet Excalion succeeds by taking this “less is more” route.

The answer, of course, is SONGWRITING! Overproduction is hard to find here; most of the songs on Waterlines are written in a way that makes them distinguishable enough to sound different, despite their relatively short and simplistic structuring. Take, for instance, The Wingman and Between the Lines, two of the faster songs on the album: you can easily pick out the melodies in each one and remember them fondly as two separate songs, not just “the fast ones”. To me, it sounds like Excalion took a dedicated approach to make songs that, erm, sound good and can appeal to anyone. Funny how going back to the basics can yield such great results sometimes!

On the other side of this coin are songs like Delta Sunrise and I Failed You, which are ballads that-gasp-DON’T TOTALLY SUCK! In fact, they’re two of the more enjoyable songs on the album. That deserves some praise right there, or maybe my expectations are just too low because of all the crappy power metal ballads out there. In any case, the slower stuff on Waterlines is proof that there are still a few metal bands out there that can write this sort of thing.

If there’s one thing that stands out on Waterlines, it is without a doubt the vocals of Jarmo Paakkonen. The man sings with a combination of power and charisma that’s hard to find nowadays. He still hits the incredibly high notes that you would expect in a power metal vocalist’s repertoire, but they’re accented by the general feeling that he genuinely loves singing. Paakkonen’s vocal melodies dominate songs like Arriving as the Dark, being incorporated into the band’s songwriting style in a way that’s nothing short of remarkable. As a bonus, the lyrics he sings (although written by other members of the band), don’t deal with dragons or the magical mumbo-jumbo that I despise; if you’re looking for Rhapsody-inspired lyrical content, look elsewhere!

Although it’s not really original, Waterlines does benefit from its overall restrained nature. All of the puke-inducing, over-the-top, cheeseball crap is hard to find on this album, and that’s saying something when you consider what bands these guys sound like: Sonata Arctica, Twilightning, and the other usual suspects. The lack of innovation on this album is canceled out by its great balance and overall maturity of the band’s sound. While I wish that it was a little more riffy, I can’t argue with the results; those being that this album is both easy to listen to all the way through and memorable enough to pop in many times over. Highly recommended!