Дальнобойщики-2

This is certainly the oddest release in Aria's extensive discography. Whoever thought this album was a great idea needs to get his head checked. Still, it's certainly better than it seems to be at first contact. This album is the soundtrack to a computer game. The idea wasn't that new since Iron Maiden had done pretty much the same with its Ed Hunter release two years prior to this album.

While Iron Maiden's release was a greatest hits collection, Aria's soundtrack is a quite strange potpourri consisting of totally re-recorded, partially re-recorded and only remastered songs in random order.

As if that weren't weird enough, some guest musicians participated on some songs, adding additional keyboard sounds and bass guitar and one has to wonder why Vitaly Dubinin couldn't perform these parts himself.

To add another oddity to this record, all twelve tracks are entirely instrumental versions of Aria songs. In hindsight, this might have been a foreshadowing of vocalist Valery Kipelov's impending departure from the Russian heavy metal flagship.

The final result sounds more coherent than one might have thought. The songs selected from the most recent record, the overlooked releases from the nineties and the classics from the early eightes complement one another rather fluidly. Since all songs are instrumental versions, the album has a quite unique flow and is easily listenable from start to finish without any interruptions. As a matter of fact, the original versions remain good heavy metal songs and that's also the case for the simplified instrumental takes.

The only thing that bothered me with some of the instrumental tracks were a few lazy fade outs that might have been popular in rock music of the seventies or pop music of the eighties but which don't suit poignant heavy metal music. Fade outs aren't proper conclusions but aborted endings. Metal bands should abstain from this stylistic device.

In the end, one has to wonder who would purchase this release. Fans of the computer game wouldn't usually purchase its soundtrack. Fans of the band already own the original records with the featured songs. New fans shouldn't start with this unusual release but pick up a proper greatest hits collection or purchase the most recent regular studio album. This record isn't as bad as it seems but only interesting for avid collectors.