Artist: Xandria
Title: Sacrificium
Genre: Symphonic Metal
Release Date: 2nd May 2014
Label: Napalm Records
Album Review
German Symphonic Metal act XANDRIA was founded in 1994 in Bielefeld by guitar player and vocalist Marco Heubaum. For about twenty years of the existence the formation came through several line-up changes, played a lot of concerts and became well-known among lovers of that kind of music. The new album became the 6th in the band's discography and was highly expected by fans and critics. The previous work entitled ‘Neverworld’s End’ was often regarded as one of the best releases of the genre.
In the process of recording ‘Sacrificium’ there took part such famous masters of the metal scene as Joost van den Broek (AFTER FOREVER, STAR ONE, REVAMP), Sascha Paeth (EDGUY, EPICA, AVANTASIA) and many others, and besides this record became a sort of debut for the new singer of XANDRIA, Dianne van Giersbergen. Her classical education, choral singing and fronting her own band EX LIBRIS did the job: the band obtained not only a crystal soprano but also a professional and artistic front woman. Dianne is not related to Dutch vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen, but she calls Anneke and Tarja Turunen the most influential while forming her musical background.
As for the new album, fans and critics can count on a masterpiece again: there’s no need to say about the great musicianship and qualified production. Actually I haven’t listened to XANDRIA since 2005 (the album called ‘India’, which I found quite decent, but comparing to the grand of that time - nothing special). And now nine years later the band impressed me a lot. The ‘Sacrificium’ bewitches you from the very start and holds your attention up to the middle. It begins with an intro and blasts into the first "action" song. Dianne highlighted each composition and created the unique mood and hue for every single piece. Her solo parts are tastefully intermingled with the choral ones, the orchestral arrangements are lightly entwined in the fleshy guitar riffs and the whole work is crowned with careful planning of each track.
The album is soaked with purely German melodic and measurement. You can hear ethnic instruments here as well - it’s a quite common thing for XANDRIA. By the middle of the record one may feel a bit distracted - we can hardly say that this work is easily digested. I would recommend to listen to it in two sets. The atmosphere is quite gloomy or even tragic especially for those who perceive the music at night, but taking the genre stylistics into the account it can be regarded as a complement. The running time is a bit more than an hour, there are few ballads among twelve tracks and this circumstance can be attractive for the amateurs of drive and powerful blending. In general, ‘Sacrificum’ is great and interesting, just enjoy!
Tracklist
01. Sacrificium – 10:23
02. Nightfall – 4:02
03. Dreamkeeper – 4:44
04. Stardust – 5:42
05. The Undiscovered Land – 4:34
06. Betrayer – 6:16
07. Until the End – 5:48
08. Come with Me – 5:05
09. Little Red Relish – 4:40
10. Our Neverworld – 3:51
11. Temple of Hate – 5:59
12. Sweet Atonement – 4:20
Line-up
Dianne van Giersbergen – Vocals
Marco Heubaum – Guitar, Keyboard
Philip Restemeier – Guitar
Steven Wussow – Bass
Gerit Lamm – Drums
Website
http://xandria.de / https://www.facebook.com/xandriaofficial
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 10
Sound: 10
Total: 10 / 10
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