India

This CD was kind of hiding and forgotten on my shelf, while I wondered why I had wanted to buy it. But then, I started thinking of Xandria's most interesting songs, and I played it for the first time in like two years.

What do I mean by their most interesting songs? Well, Xandria's albums aren't the best ever made and have their share of forgettable tracks, but you can always hope to find a few songs that just get it right. Songs with a unique atmosphere, a certain originality, a catchy melody and quite good lyrics.

I guess the problem with their forgettable songs is that they are "not enough". Not heavy enough, vocals that are pleasant but not special or amazing, not enough guitars. The first track, "India", has a nice epic quest and power metal feel, but it's not exactly the most remarkable song in that style. It isn't that powerful, and it has already been done. Similarly, while "The End of Every Story" sounds nice, it still reminds me of a less inspired version of Within Temptation's "Never-Ending Story". "Now and Forever" and "Like a Rose on the Grave of Love" are just sappy love songs. The latter has a guest singer which sounds even more generic than the lead vocalist. And you've gained nothing by listening to "Return to India".

So what do I like about this album? Well, Xandria may not have the best music, but their true talent is their lyrics. Their lyrics manage to tell stories, that don't tell necessarily give many details but still brings well-known tropes to mind and create very strong and well defined characters. The title track is about going on a quest, "Fight Me" is about fighting your evil side. "In Love with the Darkness" is about enjoying all strange things, being a goth as some people have interpreted it. "Black and Silver" is about a mysterious character that fascinates everyone but doesn't care about any of them. "Widescreen" is about a dystopian society constantly watching over people.

Most importantly, these lyrics do their job very well. "Winterhearted" is a break-up songs with the pretty biting lines "We had a vision, no, I had a vision" or "One of us is cold as ice and it's not me". Sure, that's kind of an horribly banal subject for such a fantasy-themed album, but it still really tears that annoying ex apart. Similarly, "In Love with the Darkness" is a very good "eccentricity anthem". We don't know who and why "they" watch over on people in "Widescreen", nor do we know who is that Black and Silver person and what's so special about her, but we still believe that those characters…exist, well, could be part of a well-written story. Obviously, there are many ways to write good lyrics, but I need to say I haven't seen that many that tell stories the way Xandria does.

It helps that, musically, these are some of the best parts of the album. "Fight Me" is a strange hybrid of nu metal, symphonic metal and Indian music which manages to be both dark and catchy. "Black and Silver" has this haunting melody, with these lower, "dark" vocals. Xandria isn't really the most guitar-driven symphonic metal band, but tracks like "India" and "Widescreen" have some punch, especially the guitar solo in "India". That one is by far the best instrumental part. I know I already complained about Lisa Middelhauve's vocals, but I don't think they are actually that bad. I really like the dark sound they have on "Black and Silver", and with how much conviction she sings. Especially on the choruses of "India" or "Winterhearted", and of course "I'm in love with the darkness of the night, I'm in love with all that's out of sight, I'm in love with the magic of the new and the darkness loves me too". That emotion isn't as present on other tracks, unfortunately.

So in short, Xandria have all sorts of great concepts, OK vocals and instruments and atmosphere. Sure not every song on this album is amazing, but the good ones are really worth checking out. Xandria isn't great, and may not seem like much, but they are decently enjoyable.

To me the Germany hailing band Xandria sounds pretty decent. No more, no less. Their music is generally described as Symphonic Gothic Metal (according to their bio on last.fm). The guitar riffs are strong. The melodies are good to listen to and sometimes even beautiful. The synth parts are not overwhelmingly present and their lyrics are about serious subjects without being rude or offensive. However their music misses something. It can't really compete with the big names in the same genre, like Nightwish and After Forever.

I think this 3rd album, India, makes clear why. I have listened to it several times. Sometimes I really concentrated on the music and the lyrics, sometimes I listened to it while doing something else. Every time I thought it sounded good, but I had trouble keeping my attention to the music. And that, to me, is the difference between good (or decent, if you want) and great. If I am listening to the music, even enjoying it, and at a certain point I am thinking “let's do something else”, than the artist failed to really draw me into his music. That is exactly the problem I have with India (and other Xandria albums as well).

The opening track, India, is powerful (the introduction is a bit too long though) and immediately grasps my attention with powerful voices and guitar riffs and floating background synths. The next 4 songs though are, musically nice as they sound, not strong enough to keep my attention. Now, why is that? The main difference between the songs (apart from the lyrics and the melody lines of course...) are the synths. The guitar riffs start to look like each other and individual guitar virtuosity seems completely absent. The synths make up for this making the whole listening experience good enough, but from a true metal band I expected a bit more. Beside that, in most songs the synths are relegated to the background a bit. This usually is a good thing in Gothic Metal, if the guitars can carry the songs with strong riffs and individual virtuosity. The riffs on this albums are strong enough, but not very distinctive, but as said before, the individual virtuosity of the guitars is missing.

The next problem are the vocals. I mentioned that they were strong and powerful in the first song. Unfortunately they don't stay that way. During the next couple of songs the vocals don't sound as powerful as I would wish they sound. At some (luckily sparse) points, the vocalists even has trouble overpowering the music (especially during the choruses of songs, when the guitars play their heavy riffs).

Luckily there are a few great songs about halfway the album, making listening to the album interesting enough to sit it out. First there is the ballad “Like a rose on a grave of love” which is a bit of an easy oasis after the heaviness of the first songs. Here, the vocalist really stand out because she doesn't need to overpower the music. I'm not a very big fan of her voice, which I think is a little bit too sweet, but on this song it works. The ballad is followed by the songs “widescreen” and “the end of every story”. These songs stand out due to distinctive riffs and a lyrical themes I can identify myself with. Furthermore “The end of every story” has a very nice acoustic intro and end.

Let me get one thing straight. Every album of every artist has songs you are bound to like and songs you think are less interesting. But if an album, like India, has only 3 or 4 songs (out of 12), which really grasp you and the other songs are just fillers, then I can't help giving the album a higher grade than decent.