Invitation

I, like probably everybody even looking at this album, was interested in giving this album a listen due to it having Jani Liimatainen on it, of Sonata Arctica fame. As we all know by now he left Sonata Arctica after Unia and has had only sparse musical output after that, such as the Cain's Offering albums and more recently the Dark Element albums. So people who are fans of his sound in Sonata Arctica commonly want to look around to hear more of his work from around this era.

This album is not a place to look for this. I'll say it pretty simply, this album doesn't even sound like Jani is involved with it. Save for a nice, very Jani sounding solo on History Of Times To Come and some other songs, Jani may as well not even be listed on this album's band members. It has not a riff, nor a lick. Nothing interesting guitar-wise outside of the solos that are clearly Jani playing. I'm fairly sure Jani contributed almost zero to the album other than the solos despite being listed as a full band member. So Jani fans, this album isn't what you're looking for.

The first couple of seconds of the opening song Unicorn make it sound like this album MIGHT have some power to it, with a tiny little power metal high note from the vocalist at the beginning and a halfhearted guitar riff. But this is a trick. It tricked me into listening to the full album, but there isn't anything particularly interesting overall on the album vocally or guitar-wise. An occasional Jani solo is all you'll get, and those simply won't save this album.

This album is a plodding, powerless mess. If it's power metal, there's nothing powerful about it. If it's anything else, it's a pathetically ball-less sounding album. No oomph, no energy. The vocalist Jouni Nikula sounds like a huge idiot, like your dad trying to sound cool. The vocal delivery is the biggest insult of this album, but outside of that there really isn't anything particularly notable. Everything is aggravatingly mediocre, aggravatingly midpaced, aggravatingly lacking in riffs. I'm still wondering how the other review gave this 90%. I don't know if they were trying to emulate Sonata Arctica somehow trying to have a sort of "sensual" vocal delivery, but their vocalist absolutely cannot do this sort of sound.

I felt it necessary to leave a bad review to this album while going through 2003 releases. Because it's not good at all from a power metal perspective. I enjoy hard rock occasionally but this is awful even when looked at from a non-power metal perspective as far as I'm concerned.

Main forces that make Altaria in their debut album Invitation are Jani Liimatainen (ex-Sonata Arctica, Cain’s Offering) in guitars and keyboards, Emppu Vuorinen (Nightwish) in guitars and Jouni Nikula (Requiem) bringing his high pitched vocals. In guest vocals for the song “Fire and Ice” we have Marco Hietala (ex-Nightwish, Tarot).

One could simply say the band plays melodic power metal, but at the heart of the band exists a mix of traditional heavy metal, hard rock with catchy choruses and at times keyboard melodies. All this is done in a melodic way rather than “show off” way. It is all about those simple and catchy songs. Nothing stands out over the top production or songwriting wise. Nikula and the keyboards tend to come up at times sounding very epic and some songs are very hymn-like. To balance the melodic and the epic interpretation of the lyrics from Nikula comes guitar riffs that we have come to expect from Liimatainen and Vuorinen. The guitars much like keyboards on the album are more in a supporting role and come when needed more than what may be heard from many of the melodic power metal bands from Germany or Italy for example.

In a way this record sounds like it is build around Nikula’s vocals which he brings in similar fashion as in his earlier albums with Requiem. A lot of catchy choruses, epic highs, soft ballady lows – Nikula does it all. But this is all done in a traditional way with songs still being mostly guitar driven. Although we should not forget those creative leads or solos that pop and you instantly recognize that touch of Emppu Vuorinen. While the album tends to repeat itself a little bit it, it doesn’t get boring because the songs and the album are kept short enough. This is one of the strengths of the album and helps in coming back to this album.

For those who look for fast paced power metal you don’t really find that here. Altaria operates pretty much in mid-tempo area. And I don’t find myself wanting the fast stuff because the riffs, the leads, melodies come supporting good songs with Nikulas singing as a cherry on top. Altaria’s melodic way to mix up hard rock/heavy metal/power metal is something you would be best to hear yourself. Whole album is really a joy to listen to and has very little filler in it.

All in all the whole package of what Altaria does with their debut while not the most unique is very professionally done and finds a kind of harmony here. The creativity and the vision for bands sound is best executed here on this debut album than what comes later on in my opinion. Not enough people talk about Altaria and this album here. Somehow the band seems to have been left under the rock….and a hard place. Okay I’ll leave it at that. Why don’t you give the record a spin!