Album: Follow Your Dream (2012)
Genre: Prog Metal (Symphonic Metal) / Multi-National
When thinking of Symphonic Metal most of us are thinking about big classical or synthesizer fanfares, soaring vocals (more often than not with a soprano at the helm, eh, mic), heavy influences from Power Metal with double-bass and the whole nine yards. Well, enter international project SUNCROWN and throw good parts of this stereotype overboard. Ukrainian keyboardist and mastermind Oleg Biblyi has united musicians from the USA, Argentina, Turkey, Brazil and the Netherlands in order to create a sound that can firmly be described as Symphonic Metal, but at the same time stays away from most of the above-mentioned elements. I must admit that at first listen, debut effort “Follow Your Dream” had been a rather subdued affair, listening to it in the background its 50 minutes went by without taking any big notice of things, so I kind of put the album off as just another release out there in the ocean, when I went back to it, though, things started to coalesce and form something that is not just different from the gamut of genre neighbours, but actually highly interesting! No big over the top orchestration, no high flying vocal duels or mind boggling faster-than-light instrumental wizardry, but they take more the widescreen soundtrack type of approach to the genre. Now what is the worst part about this is, the in my opinion weakest track, “Believe”, stands right at the beginning of the album, kicking things off in very unspectacular fashion, but as soon as “Make This Life Worth Living” takes over, things change. After some expressive vocal intro by Juliana, the song turns into an epic and at times almost airy track that lives off it strong atmosphere, with the instruments just aiding the vocal performance of Juliana and Darren Crisp to make them the focal point of the track. Overall epic is the key here, with the atmosphere carrying the songs and the strength of the compositions and arrangements ensuring that we never slip down into the realm of sappiness. “Eyes Of The World” is the track that even two weeks later still is spooking around in my head, slow, with just enough crunch in the guitars to leave an impression, but tons of atmosphere. Darren also shows good restraint in his vocal delivery, which displays power, but stays well in the context of the song surrounding him. This unusual approach to Symphonic Metal really makes SUNCROWN stand out, which is further underlined by the great instrumental “War Spirit” that once more reminds me of a soundtrack, the faster “Follow Your Dreams” or the calm, and epic soundtrack-like “When Hearts Want To Be Together”. “Follow Your Dream” is probably the most unusual Symphonic Metal album I have ever listened to, very unobtrusive, yet epic, atmospheric, yet expressive, a great debut of this international project, which definitely has grown on me a lot over the repeated listens. Don’t let its relatively calm nature fool you, there is a lot of strength to be found and has all the potential to take you away onto a beautiful journey through your mind. Review by "Alex" (www.metal-observer.com).
RATING: 7.75 / 10
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Genre: Prog Metal (Symphonic Metal) / Multi-National
When thinking of Symphonic Metal most of us are thinking about big classical or synthesizer fanfares, soaring vocals (more often than not with a soprano at the helm, eh, mic), heavy influences from Power Metal with double-bass and the whole nine yards. Well, enter international project SUNCROWN and throw good parts of this stereotype overboard. Ukrainian keyboardist and mastermind Oleg Biblyi has united musicians from the USA, Argentina, Turkey, Brazil and the Netherlands in order to create a sound that can firmly be described as Symphonic Metal, but at the same time stays away from most of the above-mentioned elements. I must admit that at first listen, debut effort “Follow Your Dream” had been a rather subdued affair, listening to it in the background its 50 minutes went by without taking any big notice of things, so I kind of put the album off as just another release out there in the ocean, when I went back to it, though, things started to coalesce and form something that is not just different from the gamut of genre neighbours, but actually highly interesting! No big over the top orchestration, no high flying vocal duels or mind boggling faster-than-light instrumental wizardry, but they take more the widescreen soundtrack type of approach to the genre. Now what is the worst part about this is, the in my opinion weakest track, “Believe”, stands right at the beginning of the album, kicking things off in very unspectacular fashion, but as soon as “Make This Life Worth Living” takes over, things change. After some expressive vocal intro by Juliana, the song turns into an epic and at times almost airy track that lives off it strong atmosphere, with the instruments just aiding the vocal performance of Juliana and Darren Crisp to make them the focal point of the track. Overall epic is the key here, with the atmosphere carrying the songs and the strength of the compositions and arrangements ensuring that we never slip down into the realm of sappiness. “Eyes Of The World” is the track that even two weeks later still is spooking around in my head, slow, with just enough crunch in the guitars to leave an impression, but tons of atmosphere. Darren also shows good restraint in his vocal delivery, which displays power, but stays well in the context of the song surrounding him. This unusual approach to Symphonic Metal really makes SUNCROWN stand out, which is further underlined by the great instrumental “War Spirit” that once more reminds me of a soundtrack, the faster “Follow Your Dreams” or the calm, and epic soundtrack-like “When Hearts Want To Be Together”. “Follow Your Dream” is probably the most unusual Symphonic Metal album I have ever listened to, very unobtrusive, yet epic, atmospheric, yet expressive, a great debut of this international project, which definitely has grown on me a lot over the repeated listens. Don’t let its relatively calm nature fool you, there is a lot of strength to be found and has all the potential to take you away onto a beautiful journey through your mind. Review by "Alex" (www.metal-observer.com).
RATING: 7.75 / 10
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