Review by Macel Leonardi
Sunblaze - Illuminating Heights Sunblaze is from Kaiserlautern - German bands
are always impressing me. But what we have got here is one of the most ambitious
metal projects ever: a full Progressive Metal Orchestra!
Review by Marcel Leonardi
Score: 90
The musicians in charge of this brilliant work are Matthias Pfaff, vocals;
Martin Enke, guitars; Jörg Enke, keyboards; Michèl Kalifa, bass; Jochen
Donauer, drums. The orchestral support is composed of Elisabeth Ramires, violin;
Carsten Donaeuer, Clarinet and Sax; and Barbara Wagner, flute. The choir is
divided like this: Elisabeth Ramires and Katrin Hansch as sopranes; Barbara
Wagner as alto; Thorsten Müller and Martin Enke as tenors, and Mathias Elsässer
and Jörg Enke as bass.
All those musicians really stand out, specially due to the great songwriting.
The melodies are beautiful, all of the instruments are well-placed, the
arrangements are creative, and the singing is great. The choir really adds to
the atmosphere of the album, as the different range of the singers make a great
combination with spetacular results.
Traditional metal fans be warned, though: the guitar parts are not that heavy,
and they are not overused. Instead, you will find great instrumental passages
with a delicate, smooth sound which are later combined with time changes and
metal elements. The use of unusual instruments as clarinet, sax, flute and
violin is so perfect and interesting one might wonder how come people don't use
them more often.
This is an album that manages to blend intrincacy with beauty in an elegant way.
Nothing sounds complicated just for the sake of showing-off - the way some
progressive bands think they should play.
The booklet of this album is very beautiful, with high-quality paper, lots of
colors and cool graphic effects - it is certainly up to par with the music. The
only fault with this CD is its length. Only 24 minutes of brilliant music that
let you begging for more! Don't miss it!
Since posting a full song from this CD would mean posting half of the album, I
contacted Jörg and he asked me to post only some parts of the song "Sunblaze".
Check it out below.
Contacts: Sunblaze - C/O Jörg Enke - Wackenmühlstr. 13 - 67655 Kaiserslautern
- Germany