There are times that you are fortunate enough to dedicate some of your time and “sacrifice” other precious moments by doing what you love the most. In my case, it is the pleasure of writinga few words about bands that you discover absolutely out of nowhere and that you wouldn’t normally get to know them if you weren’t a music journalist. Truth be told here; in our time and age when everything’s changing in breakneck speed, it is really hard to pay close attention to what a musical outfit has to offer. Luckily for us, Blacklands is one of the bands that we had the chance and great luck to discover and enjoy their music. This is a German quintet that has just released its debut album and not only lays the foundation for a remarkable future career but at the same time impress us all with the quality of the compositions and the maturity of the overall performance.
Looking at the cover (which is, by the way, magnificent and eye-catching), it is hard to get a grip of what style of music Blacklands plays…the German outfit musically revolves around the area of melodic rock with many progressive elements (that are not tiresome at all) and an atmosphere similar at points to Nightwish (of “Dark Passion Play” era). In regards with that last characteristic, we must underline the presence of female lead vocalist Moja Nardelli (maybe, of an Italian origin…?) that is doing a brilliant job behind the mic.
The opening track “Cold Embrace” sets the tone for what you are about to experience on this 80-minute (!) record while the moody “Ocean of Tears” and “I Can Hear Your Heart” are for this journalist the best moments of a great record. “A New Dawn” will surely appeal to fans of Toto, Marillion, Nightwish and why not Bryan Adams but the hardcore fans of Heir Apparent and Dragonsclaw should also take notice of the album because there are some guest members in there.
We hope that “A New Dawn” will lead to a…sunny day for Blacklands! They deserve it…good luck, guys!
Highlight: Blacklands’ drummer and founding members, Thomas Kelleners, is also the drummer of old school metallers Heavenward.
