SEVENTH WONDER

Delving into an intriguing concept about human emotions, the new record takes inspiration from the complex technical musicianship of band like Dream Theater, the instant catchiness of melodic hard rock and AOR, as well as the rhythmic immediacy of modern metal, weaving together this wide range of influences into a distinctive and personal sound that has characterized Seventh Wonder's discography since the very beginning. Compared to previous albums, the new record packs perhaps more immediate and uplifting tunes, although there is always a dark vein of melancholy running through the music, making this LP a must-listen for fans of brooding modern progressive metal such as Evergrey, Kamelot, and Darkwater.

The album's main strength lies in the ability to combine contagious melodies with cleverly articulated arrangements, striking a great balance between immediacy and depth. The songs have instant impact on the listener thanks to their formidable hooks, but at the same time it takes several listens to fully unpack their complexity. Take, for instance, the songs' form. Despite structures that rarely depart from the regular repetition of verse, pre-chorus and chorus, the ever-changing arrangements ensure there is a constant sense of moving forward in the compositions, thus avoiding the chief pitfall of many chorus-centred tunes that often come across as over-simplistic and repetitive. Johan Liefvendahl's guitar plays a remarkable role in keeping the arrangements fresh and varied, constantly shifting between simple rhythmical accompaniment and more intricate countermelodies. His guitarwork is often doubled up by Andreas Blomqvist's extraordinary bass lines, which have always been a distinctive aspect of Seventh Wonder's sound. The songs' texture is further enhanced by Andreas S'derin's tasteful keyboard interjections, well-balanced between futuristic and retro sounds, while drummer Stefan Norgren provides a solid backbone to the music, with good grooves that never grow too busy or overbearing. With a singer of the calibre of Tommy Karevik, it's inevitable that the spotlight is constantly shown on the vocal melodies. And Karevik of course never fails to deliver. Songs like 'Warriors', 'I Carry the Blame' and 'The Red River' contain great vocal hooks that are guaranteed to remain seared into your mind after the first time you hear them.

These songs, together with the instrumental, vaguely neoclassical metal-sounding 'Reflections', are hands down the record's best tunes. The album's second half is instead more subdued and unyielding. 'Invincible', 'Mindkiller' and 'Under a Clear Blue Sky' thread similar paths as the tracks from the album's first half, but are dogged by less inspired melodies and, in the case of 'Under a Clear Blue Sky', an overstretched structure that does little beyond adding to the record's minutage. Even the pleasant ballad 'Elegy' that closes the album does not manage to make a very strong last impression, despite the Karevik's passionate performance.

Alas, the unbalanced tracklist is not the only problem of The Testament. I was also taken aback by the overall lack of variation across its nine songs, which seem to have all been cut from a similar cloth. This is particularly unsettling given that, conceptually, the album set out to explore a diverse range of human emotions, from joy to anger to despair. This diversity does not really come across in the music which instead seems to explore the same mood ' halfway between upbeat hopefulness and plaintive yearning ' throughout the album's 53 minutes. The fairly limited dynamic range of many tracks and the strongly chorus-driven song structures add to the feeling of sameness, to the point that one may compare The Testament to one of those mono-ingredient foods that are only digestible if taken in small doses and at the right intervals.

Overall, The Testament leaves me with mixed feelings. It is undoubtedly a high-quality release by one of the best bands in the melodic prog metal genre. It is full of hooks and subtle, technical passages that will appeal to both casual and in-depth listening. It is slickly produced and contains a handful of great tunes that I have been humming to myself countless times in the past week. At the same time, the album does not quite match up with Seventh Wonder's best output (Mercy Falls, The Great Escape) as it lacks the breadth, vision and variation of those records. It is also heavily front-loaded, with a second half that drags and veers dangerously close to the filler zone. On balance, despite its positive qualities, I doubt that The Testament will stand the test of time as one of Seventh Wonder's landmark releases, but will instead go down in the history books as a pleasant, but average production by the Swedish combo.

[Originally written for The Metal Observer]

But there's more. Every track is predictable. As soon as you hear the first ten notes, you basically can guess how it will play out. Nothing surprises me. Tempo changes, solos, everything plays out much like you envision it to play out.

I can't recommend this album. I'm sure there are fans for this. But I'm not one of them. I rate this 2 stars. Fans only.

1. "A New Beginning" (3:05) weird (flat/soap-opera-ish) voice acting to set up the story. (6.5/10) 2. "There And Back" (Overture) (3:02) solid heavy prog instrumental that does little to impress--other than sound engineering. (7.5/10)

3. "Welcome To Mercy Falls" (5:11) now we get to finally hear some of the band members' instrumental skills. Talented singer Tommy Karevik sounds like a cross between some iconic 80s lead singer like Loverboy's David Reno or Europe's Joey Tempest and AltrOck wunderkid Alessio Calandriello. Nice trade of solos between lead guitarist Johan Leifvendahl and keyboardist Andreas Blomqvist. (8.75/10) 4. "Unbreakable" (7:18) with its prominent keyboards, this one starts out sounding like a DREAM THEATER song, but then the music switches for the arrival of the vocals to a more 1980s familiar sound palette. Great vocalist. A little Kevin Moore feel in those keys. Nice little bass solo over the piano in the fifth minute but so out of place! (13/15) 5. "Tears For A Father" (1:58) soft ballad-like interlude. Emotional vocal performance. (4.25/5)

6. "A Day Away" (3:43) power metal music with strong classical piano presence. Could be part of a Broadway production. Don't like the fear-based advice/message: "Stay away from the playground." Nice performances but it's all been done before. (8/10)

7. "Tears For A Son" (1:43) another brief piano-based ballad to pair with #5. The vocal is a little more That Joe Payne- like in its theatric histrionics. (4.25/5)

8. "Paradise" (5:44) strong power vocal over theatric power metal (again with heavy classical piano runs throughout). Lacking a bit in cohesion and melody. Nice guitar solo in the second half. (7.75/10)

9. "Fall In Line" (6:09) synth washes and keening lead guitar solo open this one before it jumps into the race. Standard metal leads continue until switch to vocal entrance when it becomes more interesting. Nice variations in pacing and spacing. Chorus is completely clichéd. One of the more interesting songs, musically, on the album--but the 1980s-familiar vocal lets disappoints. (8.5/10)

10. "Break The Silence" (9:29) opens as metal ballad. A pleasant song with a kind of cool story arc with music that is well matched. Nice lead guitar, bass, and bass drum timing in the fifth minute soli, some very nice hooks and unexpected turns in there, too (including another awesome bass solo). One of my top three faves. (18/20) 11. "Hide And Seek" (7:46) a very nicely constructed and shaped song over which Tommy and chorus(!) sing in lower registers. It even has a decent chorus! (13/15)

12. "Destiny Calls" (6:17) one of the more complex song constructs on the album, it starts off quite impressively with the presentation of three or four unique motifs during the two minutes of instrumentalism before the vocals enter. Even when the vocals join in, the song remains excitingly disjointed as they continue to use the earlier-established motifs with instrumental variations. (8.75/10)

13. "One Last Goodbye" (4:21) acoustic guitars open this one, one strumming, one picking, before Tommy joins in with some harmony-support from an uncredited female vocalist. Nice song, another great emotional performance by Tommy Karevik. Another top three song for me. (8.75/10) 14. "Back In Time" (1:14) cool "dream"sequence flashback/review--until the "big reveal": Oops!!! (4.5/5)

15. "The Black Parade" (6:57) opens like a death metal song before layers of keys take the edge off. The lyrics seem to want to offer us life advice: live your life to the fullest each and every day. Lots of cliché platitudes. Too bad. Solid musically, though that ASIA-like chorus takes one back. (13/15)

Total Time 73:57

B-/3.5 stars; noting so very new or unique here but Mercy Falls is a very nice power prog concept album to add to your collection. Talented musicians tackle an interesting storyline with competence. Great vocal talent in Tommy Karevik.

Surprisingly, the only song on this record with anything original to say is the prog epic closer. But alas, that track too outlasts its welcome well before the end of its whopping and totally uncalled for 30 minute run-time.

Tommy Karevik is recognised as being one of the best frontmen around, and here he is being given the perfect playground. Given that bass player Andreas Blomqvist, guitarist Johan Liefvendahl and drummer keyboard player Andreas 'Kyrt' S'derin have all been in the band since 2000 it should be no surprise they lock in well, while drummer Stefan Norgren (ex: Lion's Share) drives the music along with a much more powerful and dynamic approach to many in this field. This is melodic and powerful, and far heavier than would often be expected from bands on the Frontiers label. Let's hope it isn't quite so long until the next one.

On top of that, Seventh Wonder set this all off against a solid musical backing, reminiscent of a more straightforward Dream Theater, which really rounds out the package. At the same time, I find I don't really come back to it that much - as accessible and enjoyable as it is on a first listen, I find it doesn't offer me much on later spins.

The above quote by Progrussia at the main page of this site today really struck my head and makes me realize that I have not said anything at all about this band even though this The Great Escape album has been in my regular playlist. Yes, in a way I agree with his statement irrespective it's criminal or not .... The fact is that this band is really underrated. He then also wrote: " ...combine an ear for sugar sweet melodies and technical brilliance of Dream Theater, although they rarely go into extensive soloing - few of the so-called Dream Theatar clones do, nor they should if can't top the masters.". Yup! His words help me formulate how I feel abouth the music of Seventh Wonder whom I knew because of Kamelot latest album. I have to admit that this band has a technical mastery: composition-wise as well as performance-wise with his counterparts like Kamelot, Dream Theater and Symphony X.

I would have never known the band until someone, my metalhead friend, told me that the new vocalist of my favourite band Kamelot has a band named as Seventh Wonder. I was so curious about it and expecting Seventh Wonder plays similar music like Kamelot. When I finally got this album .. oh no they are different than Kamelot musically but they are as excellent as Kamelot! In fact, I'd like the vocalist sings the way he sings in Seventh Wonder and not emulating like Roy Khan when he is the lead vox for Kamelot. In fact, I am afraid the lead vocal Tommy Karevik would quit from Seventh Wonder ...oh no ... He should not do that! Seventh Wonder must stay alive , and so Kamelot!

Looking at the music, the opening track Wiseman (5:42) sounds to me like a song that goes directly to chorus when the vocal line enters the music. This is quite unique actually. It moves like a straight forward power metal music with typically nice melody. Almost the same style happens at the next track Alley Cat (6:06). The Angelmaker (8:29) is more complex than the previous two tracks especially it has excellent guitar as well as keyboard solo. I must agree that actually Seventh Wonder tends not to demonstrate long solo so that the music sounds packed with combination of sounds from all instruments. There are some heavy riffs but not as frequent as Dream Theater. Right after the ballad Long Way home (4:26) the music moves up to much more energetic Move on Through (5:04) with its powerful combination of vocal harmony (plus nice melody - of course) and excellent riffs and drumming. The keyboard plays very well at the back. Ilove the bass playing at this track. This track is positioned right before the last epic which is I believe was carefully planned by the band as musical peak to conclude the album.

The Great Escape is of course an epic with its 30:14 duration. I can assure you that the duration that is considered long by some people is not that long actually because the band has successfully crafted the composition in such a way that makes us, the listeners, stunned all the way from start to end. When it starts with acoustic guitar, it reminds me to Genesis' Horison right before Supper's Ready. But this one has vocal line on top of acoustic guitar. I really enjoy the opening part with only acoustic guitar and vocal. Tommy's voice is excellent! When the keyboard enters with some classical music, it starts to make my adrenalin rolls faster. It;s really a very nice transition piece - I imagine myself watching a movie with giant screen. It flows with guitar work and the music flows in medium tempo while the riffs work its way. Well I have to admit that Andreas Blomqvist (bass), Johan Liefvendahl (guitar) and Andreas "Kyrt" Söderin (keyboard) work their best to create wonderful music here until the vocal enters. The rest is a demonstration of power metal music with excellent keyboards as well as guitar throughout all musical segments. I enjoy the staccato riffs they insert in some segments that make the epic sounds really excellent!

Overall, this is a highly recommended album with full 4.5 stars upgradeable to five stars. Keep on proggin' ...!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW