A band like Amberian Dawn could only come from the cold and sunless Finland. I mean, the Finns seem to have a soft spot for symphonic power metal, exuberant, pompous and with neoclassical tendencies. Truth be told, the Dutch are also spawning a great deal of groups treading on such overbeaten musical trail lately, yet the biggest and most successful purveyors of the style originate from Finland and are called Nightwish. And there’s a considerable flow of bands coming out of those shores trying to follow in the footsteps of Nightwish into worldwide adulation like this sextet called Amberian Dawn. ‘The Clouds of Northland Thunder’ the band’s second full-length work reveals a flagrant paucity of fresh and individual ideas as sole composer, keyboardist and guitarist Tuomas Seppälä is clearly enamoured with all things Nightwish fronted by Tarja Turunen. Like their compatriots, Amberian Dawn plays epic and symphonic metal with female operatic vocals, laced with lush orchestrations and classical references. Throughout twelve songs, the Finns don’t break out from the winning characteristics that led Nightwish into stardom. It’s all here; soprano singing provided by the classical trained Heidi Parviainen, sporadic duets with male vocalizations, Helloween-type power-metal riffing and Yngwie Malmsteen’s guitar-leads virtuosity, pompous and bombastic keyboard melodies.Sure, the song writing is sufficiently solid and Amberian Dawn seem to be highly proficient musicians, yet their music is completely unchallenging, and perhaps only provoke some enthusiastic reactions on Nightwish’s fans still mourning the departure of Tarja Turunen from the band. (4.5/10)
Band info: www.amberiandawn.com
Label info: www.ascendancerecords.com
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