The Land of New Hope

Music isn't something that a person can just up and quit, as the recent reformation of Metal Church and Running Wild after folding up the tents a few years prior suggest. Similarly, in spite of the short-live post-Stratovarius projects Revolution Renaissance and Symfonia, Timo Tolkki is at it again, and with the same familiar formula that has been employed since his much lauded songwriting on "Visions". Naturally there is an unofficial rivalry that has developed between the former Stratovarius band leader and the continuing project that kept the name, but 2013 has brought about the greatest contrast between the two, resulting in a division of die-hard conservatism on the part of Tolkki and a progressive, visionary album in "Nemesis" in the other camp, all in spite of the former's newest project being dubbed a "metal opera".

Timo Tolkki sort of fell into the Avantasia-like set up that he has now made his own back in 2008 when he salvaged what would have been a needed return to form after Stratovarius' disastrous "self-titled" flop by using session musicians and vocalists, culminating in the first Revolution Renaissance album "New Era". However, lacking any kind of a coherent concept and largely being thrown together based on who was available at the time, it didn't enjoy the level of focus that it needed to compete with the formidable "Polaris". By contrast, "The Land Of New Hope" sees a very clear, albeit cliche concept of a post-apocalyptic world where an elite group of survivors struggle to resurrect civilization, and with a likely cast of vocal characters that have largely filtered in and out of Avantasia up until the present day.

Though the center of gravity for this project is not a vocalist, much of this album is dominated by Elize Ryd and Rob Rock, the former almost to the point of rivaling Tobais Sammet's presence on the first two "Metal Opera" albums. Her voice is universally angelic and powerful, in something of a power metal version of Celine Dion, and fills up the air quite nicely both on rocking anthems like "Shine" and the two piano dominated ballads "In The Name Of The Rose" and "I'll SIng You Home" (the latter has a verse melody that sounds like it was partially lifted from "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You"). Rob Rock provides much of the needed power metal stereotypes and basically brings this as close as possible to being a Stratovarius album, and particularly shines on "To The Edge Of The World", a song that reminds heavily of the triumphant late 90s speeder off of "Visions".

The most striking element at play in this fairly standard power metal affair is literally just how standard it actually is. Apparently just about all of Timo Tolkki's desire for experimentation went out the window with his last solo album, save the closing epic title track which features Michael Kiske still singing up in the stratosphere as competently as he did in 1987. In many ways this song takes its cues from Timo's previous collaboration with the former Helloween front man on his second solo effort "Hymn Of Life", functioning as sort of an epic half-ballad and largely focusing on the prowess of the vocalist. Actually, the entire album spends much of its time catering to the vocalist and only gives occasional attention to the orchestration and Tolkki's own technical ability as a guitar player. Save a rather impressive keyboard vs. guitar solo extravaganza on "To The Edge Of The World", much of this album tends to be pretty formulaic and plain.

Whether or not one takes to this album is a pretty easy question to answer, given that Tolkki is still putting out material reminiscent of better days when the power metal genre was focused on being both catchy and fast, rather than just the former. It's mostly comparable to his brief stint Symfonia and his first effort with Revolution Renaissance, though at times it does want to also sound like "The Metal Opera: Part 2". Unfortunately it comes up a bit short on riff work and since Timo also handles the bass work on here, things tend to largely have an AC/DC meets Judas Priest flavor where the bare minimum is done to provide a bottom end yet it scarcely stands out. But for those looking for a beautiful chorus section to sing along with and a lot of pristine keyboard and orchestration work that doesn't rob the principle band instruments of prominence, this is a pretty safe bet. Think of it as the kind of album "New Era" could have been had more time been taken to refine it and unlock more of its potential.