Turn the Sun Off!

The symphonic strain of power metal that had been a massive force in Europe for a little over a decade thanks to the exploits of Rhapsody (Of Fire) and Nightwish, later followed by a healthy entourage of followers out of France, Spain and The Netherlands, started its eastward movement towards the end of the previous decade. Along for the ride was a notable degree of exaggeration of the style, particularly when considering the wild twosome of technical excursions that came out of Poland's Pathfinder in the early part of the 2010s, but this was not necessarily a binding rule if one considers the lofty, yet measured character of a project out of Moscow known as Imperial Age. Originally a de facto one man project headed by Aor and largely styled after the less overtly technical, yet still intricate symphonic romp of the likes of Kamelot and Epica, this outfit basically hit the ground running with a highly ambitious and far-reaching conceptual offering dubbed Turn The Sun Off!, touching upon the usual visuals of vampiric bombshells and cosmic phenomena that is surely on the minds of every average person. But as with any surprise, the first ingredient is doing what is expected.

Taking a page out of Tobias Sammet's playbook from about ten years prior, this massive undertaking kicks off with an epic 14 minute overture/fanfare of a title song to warm up the prospective audience. All the obligatory tricks of the trade that one would expect out of a Luca Turilli or Mark Jansen project are on full display, from the dense symphonic overlays and bombastic jumps in dynamics to build up a sense of drama, but once the expected elements are all in place things get a bit less predictable. Where usually a hybrid of an operatic tenor and a shrieking old school metal vocalist after the Halford tradition is the rule, here something more along the lines of Powerwolf's Attila Dorn assumes the role of dominant vocal presence, only with more of a baritone quality and a purely operatic timbre. The song generally sticks to the harmonic scheme of a Neo-classical/Baroque work, complete with occasional chime-ins by a harpsichord during the quieter moments, likewise exploiting dense choir sections and elongated instrumental sections where thematic material is generally slow-developing and avoid overt showboating in favor of setting up a diverse set of moods, often utilizing the metallic side of the coin more as an element of contrast rather than the chief focus.

Overall this is a fairly consistent album stylistically, but it does suffer a tiny bit from having the most ambitious and longest offering right at the beginning, detracting a bit from the material that follows, which is generally solid yet comparatively underwhelming. There is, however, a fairly diverse set of symphonic influences that come along with the array of shorter, more accessible songs that follow. The slightly more rhythmically nuanced and grooving semi-progressive anthem "Wings Of Your Heart" could almost pass for a post-Tarja Nightwish song with a male front man, while the more frenetic speed work of "Anthem Of Valour" lands in textbook Rhapsody/Fairyland territory and the folksy, bagpipe led speed romp "Battle Heart" has all of the trappings of an Equilibrium or Ensiferum anthem minus the harsh vocal work ruling the roost. Occasionally the guitar takes on the function of a lead instrument, but in a fairly sparing fashion and often resembling the melodic restraint of Emppu's work with Nightwish, as demonstrated on the charming little solo featured on the semi-ballad "Northern Lights", while a riveting violin shred-fest greets the climactic segment of the aforementioned crusher "Anthem Of Valour".

Barring the fact that this album might have done well to have had the massive opener "Turn The Sun Off!" put towards the end of the line, there is very little to complain about here for anybody who craves the massive, cinematic sound that Rhapsody pioneered back in 1997. The overtly operatic vocals might be a bridge too far for those who prefer their metal with more of a working class quality, and what occasional harsh vocal work is exploited for purpose of sectional contrast is a drop in the ocean compared to the typical "Beauty And The Beast" duet style that Epica and a few others have largely maintained from the genre's adolescence. Perhaps the closest band to what is found on here would be Ruins Of Elysium, and even then the overtly soft and smooth character of said band is only an occasional feature on this album, largely relegated to a couple of instrumental interludes, while the generally heavy-ended character of the guitars and drums could rival a number of more aggressive folk metal bands. This is something that is truly in a class all by itself, and putting aside some accessibility issues due to a very specific target audience, is a strong representation of how versatile metal is as an art form.