Band's List Symphonic Heavy Fairyland Score to a New Beginning

If you know much about power metal, more importantly Rhapsody of Fire, you'll know about Fairyland. Yeah, the band that was laughed at and taunted by power metal fans for its comedic and cheesy name (Lets face it, it's bloody ridiculous!). Then they released an album and left 90% of people who taunted them absolutely speechless, and rightly so. I thought it was a bloody awesome album, it did absolutely everything right. The array of synth was perfect, the focus on guitars was just right, and the vocals were brilliant. A powerful, female voice backed realistic sounding male choir. Brilliant.

Now it's weird how this album actually exists. ALL of the band members left. Yep, each and every one of them. Apart from Phil, the keyboardist. And after an unreal amount of guest musicians, we actually have a new full length. It is absolutely amazing how they did this, one band member, guest musicians, it was a dream that came true for Phil for sure! For us, we have a good 50 minutes of great power metal. Or at least, I hope so.

Now with every Fairyland album before, we have started with a pure synth track with choir like chanting. No vocals in this one, but it is still a much better introduction than any of the others. The synth is spot on and really diverse. Genious. It really sets the atmosphere for the next song, as it slides into the first real song on the album. Across The Endless Sea PII (On their second album they released a bonus song called Across The Endless Sea. This is the sequel.). And bloody hell. Just... Bloody hell. How the hell did Fairyland actually improve their sound by getting rid of all the band members? The synth is perfect and much more diverse, the guitar is spot on again (Although much deeper in this album), and the vocals. Unfortunately, the female vocals are gone. But a great power metal vocalist took her place, and blew me away. The power-esque squeals from this guy never cease to amaze me. The song doesn't use the conventional song layout, it's unique, and so much more awesome this way. This song never gets tiring. This song set the standard for the album, in which Fairyland did not disappoint.

Every song on the album is exactly the same in standard. Unique, beautiful, and amazingly well written. Everything on this album is polished to perfection, and nothing is left undone. Theres some brilliant tunes on this album, some of them will never leave me as time goes on. Every little bit of synth is perfect, this is where Phil really excels. How the hell does he make them so damn perfect?

There IS a massive downside to this album though, and that is the pure synth song. It's something I really don't like listening to and it takes the whole albums standard down to the gutter. The introduction was a minute and a half. This is 4 whole boring minutes, and 4 minutes that could have been easilly replaced with another power metal masterpiece, but that didn't happen.

When I was feeling disappointed with the outlook of this album as the pure synth song ended, well, all was forgiven. The title track still makes my hair stand on ends to this day. It's nearly 10 minutes, and it's just.....brilliant. You really have to hear it for yourself to believe it. Synth? Point perfect. More than perfect. Guitars? Perfect. The songwriting? Better than perfect. This trully is the best power metal song ever written, and it adds up the whole album. Pure genious and epic songwriting in an album that shouldn't even exist.

Then the outro. No guitars, almost pure synth. And a female vocalist! Where the hell did that come from? Nonetheless, it's beautiful. Really makes a fitting end to the album.

The lyrics are based on fantasy in a made-up world called Oshyria. Well, however cheesy it may be, the lyrics are well written and consistant throughout the album. Read them if you don't believe me!

As a Fairyland fan, I got more than I could ask for. A genuine, true, well-written, and well just... Amazing, power metal record from a band that shouldn't even exist. I tip my hat to you Phil for your pure determination to make a bloody great record, and you really did it.

But for goodness sake, no more pure synth songs. They pull the albums standard down.

It also helps that the album artwork is amazing too. It was my desktop background for a good few weeks after its release!

19/20

One of the most ambitious projects to come out in 2009, Fairlyland’s “Score to a New Beginning” is simply put a work of symphonic metal on steroids. With no less than 16 guest musicians contributing to this project, it is an epic, bombastic, and near over-the-top Hollywood film score done to metal.

With so much input to work with, Fairyland creator Phil Giordana seems to have achieved the impossible by not committing sensory overload from having everybody play all the time. As if numerous, uniquely designed roller coasters were aligned side by side, the cars that signify the many parts rise up and slide down between foreground and background so that at any point on any given song, some take the lead while others harmonize or play behind. The best example would be the album’s opus “Score to a New Beginning” with three guitarists providing solos, three vocalists harmonizing off each other, and two keyboardists playing one lead to another’s tracking. No doubt, it is as busy as it sounds, but what Giordana is able to control a most beautiful piece of symphonic metal has sprouted out of it.

Another achievement by Fairyland here is maintaining an acceptable level of metal. There are thunderous drums, pronounced bass lines, and a rhythm guitar line that plays its best under the cavalcade of instrumentalists that frequently play above it (“Across the Endless Sea Part II” and “Score to a New Beginning” would be the best examples).

The reality of this project; however, is the attempt at duplicating a symphonic score with many keys and synthesizer tracks emulating different sounds and orchestra pieces as the framework for each song. “Opening Credits” is an overt example, but “Score to a New Beginning” and “At the Gates of Morken” is just as visible, with the instrumental “Rise of the Giants” presenting a clearer case with bells and chimes bookending the seafaring tune.

All put together, “Score to a New Beginning” explodes with quite the arousing effect with choir vocals, dueling keyboard/lead guitar trade offs, and melodic refrains. As with the many guest guitar solos (almost every track has a guest guitar soloist), the vocal tracks are also varied both within and song to song. To note, only the very beautiful “End Credits” is sung by a guest female vocalist, Flora Spinelli). Had the guests been more famous, this work would certainly have merited more recognition, but as it stands now Fairyland’s “Score to a New Beginning” is just a hidden gem, but what a wonderful gem it is.