“A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”, this was the line that the nobelist British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, used to describe the intentions and interests of Russia in 1939.

“Enigma”, the new album of the multinational-Greek band “Fallen Arise”, was released few days ago by ROAR!Rock of Angels Records.

Perhaps, the solution in this riddle can be found in the “enigmatic” album of Fallen Arise with 10 creations, full of mystery, signifying the change in the direction of the band, in the new decade of its existence.

Fallen Arise is a symphonic metal band formed in Athens in 2009 by Gus Dibelas. Since 2009, the band has released one E.P. and two albums: “Eternal EP” (2012), “Ethereal”, (2013), “Adeline” (2015). The symphonic metallers are literally “Reborn”, with changes in their formation, having gained valuable experiences and setting the standards of performance and professionalism even higher.

Highlights:  In  the first single “Reborn” the  imposing instrumental beginning and the catchy pop refrains stand out and we can also notice this, in the entitled second single “Enigma”. The incredible vocals of the English Fiona Creaby and the Greek Vlassis Katsaounis unite for the first time in this album. The rock/metal and gothic elements are blending along with dribs and drabs of power heavy in “Without Disguise”, as well as the gloomy touches in “Foresaken”.The balanced pop aesthetics, clearly showcases the new direction of the band. Thus, harmony, coherence and diversity characterize these new creations; a mixture of clean and brutal vocals with beautiful guitar lines, including imaginative and symbolic lyrics in their majority ,with a strong sense of “storytelling” and a rich acoustic in “Horizon”. There is an apparent immediacy and simplicity in this album, to an overall demanding global  music style. Τhe frontwoman Fiona- as a fairy- put some spells with her magical vocals and we become addictive to the refrain of “Forever Winter”. There are some epic parts, with a pervasive dramatic essence and a dynamic guitar solo in “Released”, a nice tempo in the refrain and some Renaissance/Medieval elements.

The beautiful acoustic giving a sense of calmness in the sea of “Horizon”, interrupted -for a moment or a lifetime-by a storm in “The Storm Inside”. Therefore, the dreamy keyboards and the stormy drums in “Embers”, the songs’ “radio-friendly” approach, proves that this artwork can only be considered a masterpiece, with clear absence of fillers.

MVP: Undoubtedly, the whole album is full of “diamonds”, constituting the most remarkable and qualitative music record in the history of Fallen Arise so far. Even if, we’re in a middle of a quarantine on a global level, they seem to run for the “best of” the year record.

Meet the expectations: Every and each member of the band has incredible and notable musical qualities. The band has the required stage performance holding up to the global competition and it is worth mentioning the ethereal voice of British singer Fiona Creaby (it still runs through my mind the parallelism with Loreena McKennitt, made by Martha Giannakidou). 

Melody: Ethereal and mystical compositions, with atmospheric melodies, in combination with magical and mind-blowing lyrics straight from the North, a distinctive feature in the formation of the band, which they owe to invest more, on that, in the future.

Emotions: They flow effortlessly throughout the songs with some moving moments but not extremely dramatical and without even know it, the lyrics and music carrying you in an emotional journey…

Pulse: Rhythm and tension, cannot be considered insignificant, they keep the pace, only with some exceptions, without depriving anything from the whole music pleasure.

Lyrics to remember: Run into the night/Turn from the lies/Feel our plight/Calling you back home/And there you can finally/Be as one/As we stand/And fight this war («Εnigma»)

Forever winter/And the sun never shines/Searching for something/I should never find («Forever Winter»)

Yellow card: Due to the “anti-metal” virus, unfortunately, Fallen Arise won’t have the chance, for the time being, to go on tour and participate in summer festivals.

More things to do: Sometimes the atmospheric and melodic timbre of the band is really hard to be imprinted, in a live performance a fact that levels up the degree of difficulty for the band, a bet for Fallen Arise that should be won, first for the members themselves as well as for their fans.

Extra bonus tips: The mixing process took place at Hell’s Kitchen studios with John Macris as mixing engineer. For the mastering process, Fallen Arise collaborated with Fascination Street studios (Örebro, Sweden) and Tony Lindgren as mastering engineer. The album artwork is created by Paul Culley and the layout by Miron Theodoridis. The band’s photo session took place at Evolver studios (Sweden) with  Patric Ullaeus behind the camera.