NEW ERA

Review originally posted at www.therocktologist.com

Cloudscape are a progressive metal band from Sweden who have been around in the last ten years. Now in this 2012 they released 'New Era' under Nightmare Records, an album that is closer to the metal side than to the prog one. It opens with 'Silver Ending' whose first seconds are soft but later it explodes and the metal sound begins, though it is not the heaviest ever, it actually has a kind of catchy sound, but in general is a nice opener.

'Share Your Energy' is a shorter track but here we can actually listen to keyboards. I like the energy implemented, but again it has a catchy sound, which is not bad at all, actually it makes me enjoy the music in an easier way (you know I am not that keen on metal music). 'Kingdom of Sand' has an Arabic, mid-eastern flavor shared by the vocals and a sitar (which may be made by keys, I am not sure). The song starts promising but it does not continue as strong as in the beginning, I would have preferred something more ambitious, less catchy here, in spite of the nice guitar solo after two minutes.

'Pull the Brake' has an attractive instrumental beginning, after 40 seconds the voice enters and the sound changes a little bit, and then a more emotional tune can be appreciated. After three minutes the almost mandatory guitar riff appears, complementing very well this pretty good track. 'Seen it all before' is one of those songs that can be cut in halves, here I must say the first one is weak, like just another track with nothing special on it, but wait, after three minutes it changes and becomes much better, with several changes in time and mood, creating different atmospheres and emotions, showing they can create challenging compositions. A highlight!

A much faster track comes with 'Your Desire', which is closer to power or speed metal, and has a lot of energy on it, however musically talking it is not attractive to me at all, though I believe is a good change in the album. 'Voyager 9' is the longest composition reaching almost nine minutes. It starts with some noises, a disturbing atmosphere that puts tension on you, later the guitars enter along with drums and the structure begins to be built up. I must say that this song could have been better exploded, it has more juice to be squeezed, but for some reason I believe it is not as solid as I would have expected, in spite of its good changes, its development and nice musicianship.

'Simplicity'huh' starts weak but becomes a bit better while the minutes pass, here I like the implement of keyboards, they bring good nuances over the strings. 'Before Your Eyes' has again that mid-eastern flavor in the beginning due to the vocals, they are nicely complemented y keyboards, drums and strings. After a minute it slows down, some far vocals can be heard for some seconds and later the music returns to its original form. This is another highlight, and probably my favorite track of the album. It has a nice blend of feelings, the power of its heavy guitars, contrasted by the emotional voice accompanied by a piano. What a solid track!

After that great one, my enthusiasm went down with 'Violet Eve' which is not a bad song, but it has not that fresh or original sound of the previous, this is just another track more that can be forgotten. 'Into the Unknown' has nice backing vocals and a catchy tune once again, the music is not challenging but cool for a radio hit, cool for 80s metal fans. The album finishes with 'Heroes' a nice song that starts with some kind of new age keyboards, but later the metal returns to its form and the song flows until it finishes.

The album is good overall, with a couple of songs that really caught my attention, but with some other that can be truly forgotten. My final grade will be 7 out of 10.

Enjoy it!

Sweden's Cloudscape has been around for a little over a decade now, but it wasn't until 2012's New Era that I actually discovered their music - and if their backcatalog is anywhere up to par with this album, I've sure been missing out! New Era is the band's fourth full-length, and although it is often labeled as a progressive metal release, I'd be more willing to call it a sophisticated melodic metal observation. That is to say that Cloudscape's first intention is to create catchy riffs and powerful choruses, but their compositions contain a level of eclecticism and complexity that should appeal to fans of more progressive music.

Much like the classic releases from Queensryche or Fates Warning, this results in a record that is instantly enjoyable, yet still rewards the listener for giving it additional spins. New Era is also rather eclectic, as it explores classic traditional metal, heavy-edged American power metal, groovy thrash metal, melodic hard rock, and even extreme metal (there are a few growled vocals here!), all through a modern and mildly progressive edge. Although the sleek and polished production might turn off fans of 'raw' sounding metal, this style of production suits Cloudscape's music perfectly. New Era's real selling point is in the memorability of its compositions, however, as each track here is noteworthy in one way or another; whether it's the heavy thrash grooves in "Before Your Eyes", the progressively structured "Seen It All Before", or the anthemic chorus in "Your Desire", everything here is masterfully executed and infectiously catchy.

Although Cloudscape's strong dependance on hook-laden songwriting makes for a mildly repetitive listen when spread out over twelve tracks and sixty-three minutes, the music is so damn good that I hardly feel like any time has passed by at all. New Era is simply a high-quality effort across the board, and folks that enjoy the music of Fates Warning, Anubis Gate, Queensryche, and Pagan's Mind will want to hear Cloudscape sooner rather than later!