The French band Fairyland has released the third album in their trilogy last April. The predecessors to Score To A New Beginning are Of Wars In Osyrihia , released in 2003, and The Fall Of An Empire, which was released in 2006 along with a re-release of the first album. After the tour of the second album the band parted ways with the sole composer of Fairyland. This gave Phillipe Giordana the opportunity to take an entirely different approach on the new and final chapter of this trilogy.

 

The first sound of the album is quite bombastic and immediately puts me in to some sort of elfish mood, but what else would you expect from a band that is called Fairyland. The album has a flying start with ´Across The Endless Sea (part II)´ where the listener is overwhelmed with bombastic choruses, powerful drums, guitar and keyboard solos. Indeed the comparison with Rhapsody Of Fire is easily made.

 

Luckily for Giordana he did a lot more than just copy the music from that band. It is probably one of his major examples but he still manages to give Fairyland its own face within the power metal scene. Probably the fact that he worked with more than one vocalist on this album contributes to this. Add to this a great slick production where every instrument sounds clear and you’ll have some idea of how this latest effort of Fairyland sounds.

 

Overall I find this a rather entertaining album. Of course it has its lesser moments but the overall effort is great. Good song structures, powerful choruses and enough solos to keep it entertaining. Every fan of bombastic power metal should check this one out.