Review Summary: The Dark Times of Gothic/Symphonic Metal Part 12
It was about time I included Lunatica in this series. I did not exactly have the best first impression of this album, when I heard some extracts in one of those symphonic metal Youtube compilations. Once again, after listening to the album in full, I have to say my first impression was right. If you want to know why some people think symphonic/power metal is one of the cheesiest subgenres ever and don’t take it seriously, just listen to this album. It’s not really as bad as I initially feared, but it still has some obvious problems.
The cheesiness is not necessarily a problem for me, I guess I just have a higher tolerance for cheese than many others. For example, the title track is a cool song about exploring an imaginary world and it sounds incredibly catchy and fun. I don’t mind this being arguably Lunatica’s signature song. “Emocean” is another song about exploring the world, and it’s even longer and more ambitious. But most of the time, the songs have such sappy, forced feel-good lyrics and cheesy vocals that even I cannot stomach it. For example, there actually is a song called “The Power of Love”, and it’s a ballad that songs like all the hundreds of others, with Andrea Dätwyler’s singing at its most nasal and obnoxious. “Who You Are” is even worse, with its sort of pop-r’n b chorus that gives us such amazing life lessons as “You’re never gonna know what’s fake or real till you know who you are”.
And there’s more of that, though in smaller doses. “Song For You” is just one bland song about how nice it is to have a nice person by your side. It’s also a cheesy duet between Andrea and John Payne, yes, the one from Asia. I guess that’s why this song has kind of an 80s feel. “Together” is a typical fantasy-inspired power metal, including sword noises, about how all the heroes can win if they’re together.
But what is the album like, when it doesn’t feel like greeting card poetry? Well, there’s some other catchy, but not exceptional tracks, like “Sons of the Wind”. “Words Unleashed” has more energy, and aside from the title track, I’d consider it the best song on the album. “Out!” has maybe more of a bite than the rest of the album, but its sort of chugging riff reminds me too much of “Going Under”, and you know how I feel about blatant Evanescence rip-offs.
Of course, I can tolerate an album being cheesy and derivative if the music is good enough. But that brings us to the other problem with this album: musically, it’s just not very good. Yes, the title track is catchy, but it kind of loses intensity in the last part. Worse, it comes after a spoken world intro that goes on for way too long and feels honestly pretentious. “Emocean” (yes, with that spelling) is in two parts, and it’s also way too long. The vocals are another thing that keeps me from fully getting into it. Most of the time, Andrea sounds nice if not exactly remarkable, but on many songs, she sings in a nasal, unattractive way, and pronounces her lyrics rather awkwardly. When she doesn’t sing through her nose, she uses a kind of not exactly operatic high-pitched singing that sounds like what other hundreds of symphonic metal bands also do. That’s kind of a shame because her voice has some power, and she can sound pretty good when she lets it all out. But we are clearly dealing with the kind of album where everyone must waste whatever potential they have, because they’re supposed to make feel-good stuff, rather than truly interesting music.
This series mostly focuses on bad albums by bands that can do better, rather than albums by bands who've never been good. I'm not sure in which category Lunatica would belong. They've always had a tendency towards cheesy vocals and lyrics, but what I've heard from their previous albums was better than that. Of course, "Edge of Infinity" seems to be their most successful album, so you can't really say it hurt their career. Depending on how you feel about Lunatica, it's either their worst or their best album ever. I guess I can see how you might enjoy that, but that band is just not for me.
