So this is essentially a reworking of a lot of their old material with orchestra, akin to a
scorpions version of S&M (Metallica). Though it's incredibly awkward, cheesy & doesn't carry
off as a contribution to the music, the songs start and stop awkwardly to allow the orchestra
to essentially extend the songs between the more regular & now overlaid parts of the album.
One huge glaring flaw here is that there is a huge difference between hard rock & thrash in
the weight it carries alongside those instrumentations. So while it works for Metallica, and
more notably for bands like Blind Guardian (Power Metal) or Devin Townsend (Ocean Machine
Live), it falls flat due to the simplicity & sheer overpowering prescence the strings have
compared to the rather threadbare Scorpions style. Symphony needs to be recorded with a lot
of dynamic range & this album is horrifically brickwalled so every big swell of a choir,
violins & drums is as loud as every "quiet moment", it's not long before it's quite
fatiguing. Also a beautiful lamenting song like Send Me An Angel should not be portrayed with
bombastic, heroic almost "warriors going to battle" introductions - which sound surprisingly
like Welcome Home Sanitarium (As Covered by the Scorched Earth Orchestra). Whoever decided to
let Zucchero sing on this needs to be shot, due doesn't fit.
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