• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Way back in 2003, when Fairyland made a bit of a splash with their debut Of Wars in Osyrhia, I would not have pegged them as a band that would last. Those were the days when a million keyboard-heavy Power Metal bands were pouring out of Europe, all with pretentious album titles and lugubrious fantasy themes, and so many of them were completely disposable. Fairyland got attention mostly by being a cut better than the horde of other bands, but they never seemed to really be able to capitalize on it. Part of that has been their revolving-door roster, which has seen keyboard player and songwriter Philippe Giordana as the only consistent member over the years. They put out the disposable Fall of an Empire in 2006, and then Score to a New Beginning in 2009, though that album distinguished itself by being kind of good.

Now, after over ten years of silence, we get Osyrhianta, which is both a continuation of the fictional mythos the band has stuck with, as well as following closely to the songwriting style the band has always used. This is an album that could have been released in 2005 quite easily, as the sound is pure old-fashioned melodic Power Metal. The keys carry the songs, relegating the guitars to pretty much a background element. This is bombastic, shameless, and draws on movie scores and classical elements in equal measure. If you liked Rhapsody in the old days, then this album will tread very familiar ground. The problems it has are the ones this band always struggled with: the melodies and riffs are just not as good as they want them to be, and all of it just sounds kind of the same, so the individual songs don't sound all that individual. Everything about this, from the production to the compositions, performances and vocals, is just pretty good, and not any better than that. I keep hoping this band would make a real monster of an album, but this is not it.