CLOUDSCAPE

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!

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!

First thing I noticed when I played Cloudscapes debut was the big resemblance with Evergrey. Especially the heavy beat this other Swedish prog metal band also frequently uses is remarkable. Listening to the vocals though one immediately hears the difference. Evergrey has a very unique vocalist of course (Tom Englund) but Cloudscapes Micael Andersson has more of an average metal voice that can be heard in other bands as well. Good voice by the way.

So that's already two advantages with this very fine sounding band: great rhythm and a good vocalist and on second track a great guitar sound is also detectable. This second track called Under Fire is one of the highlights of this debut I have to say. The rest of the tracks is pretty good as well making this release a very promising one. Personally I don't know any of the other two albums they made so far but I don't exclude the possibility I will go for them one day. For now I will have to give 4 stars since I can't detect any significant flaws and all I hear is one hour of great prog metal. Another winner from Sweden. Well done Cloudscape !

CLOUDSCAPE is one of the sure values of the European prog metal scene!This band has an enormous potential and the high caliber of the skilled musicians is doubled with an amazing vocalist MIKE ANDERSON-a guy with a fantastic voice indeed!All the albums released by CLOUDSCAPE are in a crescendo tempo and this second one -CRIMSON SKIES is a pure prog metal jewel!This is modern prog metal,where the neo classical roots are mixed in a very efficient way with modern recording technology and elements of DREAM THEATER formula!If we try to compare CLOUDSCAPE,that's simple-there are many bands in this style-VANDEN PLAS,CIRCUS MAXIMUS,POVERTY'S NO CRIME,PAGAN'S MIND-but CLOUDSCAPE has an amazing melodic potential and the songs are definitely orientated pro song-pro melody!The production is top indeed,each instrument has a wonderful sound and the whole ensemble of the compositions sound in harmony and perfect balance between technicity-high class indeed-and great melodies and vocal chorus!All the tracks are fantastic-no weak song-believe me,and for an album of more than 1 hour-the audition of CRIMSON SKIES-is a pleasant and passioned experience!The cover is superbe too.MATTIAS NOREN brand is a guarantee-but it strangely reminds me about the American band EVENT and it's first album!4.5 STARS for a marvelous prog metal album far superior to the prog metal average quality albums,a true pearl in this genre!

Third album since now, from 2008 named Global drama, brings nothing new in Cloudscape sound, maybe the overall atmosphere and manner of composing is little more elastic then in the past but nothing really special. Again a good album, the vocalist is again in good form, delivering some fantastic vocal passages like on Cloak & Daggers for ex. Solid prog metal combined with some power metal elements here and there. The keybords have same role , not one of the most important instruments of the band but has some great atmospheric passages in some tracks. What to add, same as before, traditional Cloudscape sound, with solid musicianship, the main attraction to me besides the guitar parts is the excellent voice of Mike Andersson. The band is similar with Mindwarp Chamber (but less complex), Suspyre or Silent Memorial. 3 stars for sure, good but nothing special. I don't think is their best from the all 3 releases, I'm with the second one to be their most acomplishe work so far, but this one is not far.

Cloudscape is progressive metal band hailing from Sweden, reaching to the second album in 2006 named Crimson skies. I was pleasently surprised about their music and their potential. Solid progressive metal who relies more on vocal arrangements and guitar chops then on keybords escapades like other bands. Anyway the kybords doesn't have an dimportant role on this album and in entire concept but brings a certain solid and catchy atmosphere to the whole album. Some parts are simply amazing like Shapeshifter , Shadowland or Psychic Imbalance, excellent song writting and special musicianship allover, really nice. The guitar done some fantastic chops on some pieces with nice breaks and great solos, is some passages is almost power metal but very well played, remind me of Suspyre for ex or Minwarp Chamber in compositional style, but also the vocal duties held by Micael Andersson are great. He is also a member of another progressive metal (who I've reviewed in the nearly past) from Switzerland named Silent Memorial. The vocal parts are fantastic, very good vocalist with impressive range, very distinctiv tone and some moments on this album are simply amazing. Overall a good album, that is for sure, but my taste in progressive metal needs more keybords interluded with the rest, a thing that happens only on some pieces and even there sporatdicaly. 3 stars for sure, a good band with potential and with solid songwritting. Needed to be checked more often by prog metal litners.

Have you noticed that Sweden is the land of progressive music especially during the 90's and 00's era? There are so many bands coming out from this land including Cloudscape, Wolverine, The Flower Kings, Pain of Salvation and so many more. Cloudscape is another band in the vein of heavy side of progressive music. From the outside I would consider that the music of Cloudscape is not really progressive, there are not so many curved lines in terms of composition and structure. In terms of performance, they are good musicians who know how to cook a good music.

The opening track "Shapeshifter" how good and powerful their composition is. It starts with pulsating keyboard followed with the blast of drums, bass, and guitar to accompany vocal. The guitar solo is stunning especially when it's combined with keyboards at the back. "Shadowland" sounds to me like having a Moslem Prayer's call "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) at the start of the track in loop sound, followed with metal music. "And Then the Rain..." calms down the music with a medium tempo opening / intro part featuring nice guitar work and riffs that accompany vocal. There are not many breaks or changes in mood of this track, similar with the first two tracks.

The next two tracks "Take the Blame" and "The Last Breath" are in the similar vein. But when it reaches track 6 "Psychic Imbalance" it surprises me as the opening part is ambient psychedelic followed with music with fast tempo in the vein of progressive metal. "Hope" represents the symphonic exploration of the band without sacrificing their main competence as progressive metal expert. The symphonic nuance flows to the next track through wonderful opening part "Breach In My Sanity".

Do not expect something truly progressive from this album even though this is a good album by Cloudscape. Fans of Evergrey, Royal Hunt

Weel, if you ask my opinion, I'll tell you: there is nothing outrageous in this band and nothing outstanding either, this is just a normally composed and performed heavy music. Maybe the thing is that I've become tired of such music, so it didn't impress me. So my verdict is that it is GOOD but NOT essential. I didn't find any track to leave as a memory, the only interesting fact is the cover of the disc - it's not as ordinary as the music)

The band Cloudscape is currently a rising star in Sweden, and with reason, since their blend of melodic metal with some progressive elements suites the standard metal listener, but it's also interesting enough to please the more prog interested listener (though they are no Dream Theater in innovativity).

This album is their second release, the sequel to their self titled debut album from 2004/2005 (the release was delayed in Europe). To compare it with the last album, this one is alot darker. Where the debut seemed to be going for a melodic power metal direction at times, this one is definitely heavier, and at times more progressive.

Especially notable about Cloudscape is their vocalist, Mike Anderson. He has a very full, deep voice, sometimes a bit like Jørn Lande, but even deeper. The vocal performances on this album is great, since his voice really suites they're dark atmosphere.

The production is perhaps the best point of this album beside the vocals. It's crystal clear. You never miss a note on guitars or basses, or a beat on the drums. Pontus Lindmark and Anders "Theo" Theander has done a great job with this one.

The rest of the music consists of very tight and well performed heavy music, a lot of great dual guitar melodies and riffs, nice and atmospheric keyboards and very good drumming.

The album's weakness is the song writing at some points. The album kicks of with Shapeshifter, my favourite song of the album, and Shadowland and And then the rain... are great songs as well, but then, unfortunately, the next songs are somewhat boring, with not a lot of interesting elements at all. But when You've reached this point, do not despair, because the great stuff that was in the beginning will come back on the second half of the album, with great songs like, Breach in my sanity, Demon tears and Will we remain.

In the end, I don't think this album is a masterpiece, the songwriting is still lacking at some points, and they could use some more progression, but that is the direction they've taken, and with this album, they have really made clear what the Cloudscape sound is, and that there is a lot to expect from this little Swedish band.