Waterlines

It is said that a tiger never changes its stripes, but occasionally a band can accomplish things of a comparably astounding nature simply by tinkering around the fringes and revising their business model. Soon after the powerful yet sadly obscure debut effort of Finnish power metal upstarts Excalion, in no small part due to the nonsense preceding and surrounding the demise of Sound Riot Records, it was clear that a second go at making a first impression was in the cards. When coupled with the departure of guitarist Kimmo Hänninen and his six-string counterpart Tero Vaaja switching to bass duties to replace outgoing member Timo Sahlberg, some new blood was surely needed to give this up-and-comer outfit the needed jolt to break through into the uncertain context of late 2000s European power metal. Suffice it to say, much of what makes their highly lauded 2007 sophomore outing Waterlines a certified classic has to do with the exemplary performance put on by newly recruited guitarist Vesa Nupponen, though it is, in all respects, a collective triumph.

Despite the utterly fantastical imagery of what is assumedly Poseidon being challenged by a lone chariot-riding archer amid stormy seas, Waterlines is far more of a straightforward endeavor relative to Primal Exhale. It presents a more streamlined songwriting approach that dovetails with the band's many similarities to Finnish power metal founding fathers Stratovarius, de-emphasizing though not wholly abandoning the latent progressive elements that resulted in the more involved songwriting of this band's 2005 incarnation, all the while still avoiding the constant speed metal trappings that were common to the earlier 2000s power metal sound and incorporating a balanced array of AOR and hard rock influences typical to its time. One might even go so far as to label this album the followup to Plague House Puppet Show that Twilightning should have put out, and the similarities to Heikki Pöyhiä exhibited by vocalist Jarmo Pääkkönen are uncanny when accounting for the latter's slightly grittier, Andy Franck-informed edge.

As with any album that a band will unleash upon the masses, what occurs on here does not consist solely of utterly infectious bangers, but it gets about as close to accomplishing this as anything potentially could. The quick-paced sing-along romp "The Wingman" basically sets the tone for the entire album from its very beginning, taking some pretty clear cues from Stratovarius' "Hunting High And Low" and laying down an undisputed classic rocker that has rightly endured as Excalion's biggest hit. Other ultra-catchy entires like the mid-paced semi-ballad "Losing Time" and the upbeat, riff happy punch of "Arriving As The Dark" hit pretty close to the same zenith point with Vesa making a mad showing during each guitar solo, combining all of the best elements of Timo Tolkki and Roland Grapow's signature styles into a polished yet wild extravaganza of shred. Among the more intricate moments includes the slightly progressive and technically charged "Streams Of Madness", which sees keyboardist Jarmo "Myllyvirta matching Vesa's brilliance at every turn. And for those who crave the double bass steeped power of the older days of the style, a pair of crushers in "Ivory Tower" and "Between The Lines" frequently hearken back to what Stratovarius might have done circa 1997, albeit with a darker, almost Symphony X character to the guitar work.

When all is said and done, this was the right album at the right time, balancing all of power metal's then present with its extravagant past and churning out classic anthems at every turn. Even when things divert into mellower territory as on the somber balladry of "Delta Sunrise" and the mixed stylistic epic closer "Soaking Ground", there is this sense of dynamic motion and emotional expressionism that keeps things moving, spearheaded by Pääkkönen's highly competent vocal delivery and frequent penchant for injecting infectious chant segments at key points that surely ushered in massive audience participation while on tour. Words like "overrated" and "overblown" don't apply to this band, particularly during their tenure with Limb Music, the label that has been the starting point of countless greats in the style and got the job done when it came to getting this colossal studio endeavor to the public. The collective praise that it has received in power metal circles over the past 15 years has been rightly deserved, and those who have yet to hear it would be rise to remedy said disposition post haste.