Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: June 10, 2022
Production: Seventh Wonder
Album length: 53.11 min.
Genre: Progressive Metal
Rating: 9.0/10
Seventh Wonder are a progressive metal band from Stockholm, Sweden, formed in 2000. They’re an outstanding crew of top-notch musicians who’ve been unfairly overlooked more often than not, and who take their sweet time when it comes to making albums. Here’s hoping the move to Frontiers Music Srl. finally gets Seventh Wonder in front of a much wider audience. Their new record, »The Testament«, is only the band’s sixth studio album in total, from a group that clearly doesn’t put a record out until they’re 110% sure every last detail of the material is optimized down to the bone.
The previous album, the concept record »Tiara«, pushed the quality bar higher still, probably higher than at any point in the band’s career, so it was hard to predict whether Seventh Wonder could at least hold that level with »The Testament«. The new album isn’t weighed down by a concept, and the lyrics this time are mainly inspired by watching the strange paths humanity has been taking in recent years. Recent years? Make that millennia, because experience never teaches us a thing.
Seventh Wonder are a band that grew up on the influences of Shadow Gallery, Dream Theater and Symphony X, and in every respect they stay loyal to tight, compact songwriting that gravitates toward emotional peaks in strongly melodic, musical chorus hooks. The great chemistry these progressive metal masters have with each other is here again in abundance, and the way the instruments interact and talk to each other is simply stunning. Downright lavish toward the listener. On top of the whole Seventh Wonder story sits, of course, the hugely appealing, emotionally lived-in and technically brilliant vocal performance of Tommy Karevik, who also fronts the far more famous American metallers Kamelot. For Karevik, Seventh Wonder are home base, and it’s hard to imagine a studio album where Karevik would somehow be missing. Compare them with their countrymen Evegrey and musicality is definitely the closest shared trait, except that Seventh Wonder are considerably sharper when it comes to technically complex acrobatics, yet never as relentlessly dark as Evergrey can be. As a result, thanks to their exceptional technical chops, Seventh Wonder can afford to write ‘snaky’ compositions that are far more exciting and interesting in the progressive sense, without the compactness ever losing the thread. They can also treat themselves to instrumental moments, like the track Reflections on the new album, where the inspiration of the early Dream Theater really comes to the fore.
»The Testament« continues down the road paved by »Tiara«. It’s equal in every way, yet thankfully different. It feels more relaxed and speaks to you a little more directly. In that sense it also brings more of a high-octane, wound-up feeling, which comes from the fact that this time the band didn’t have to wrestle with a concept or bend the arrangements to fit one. Still, there’s no shortage of witty twists and turns across longer instrumental passages, syncopated rhythms and intense jumps between moods, generated by repeated turnarounds of the lead motifs. But like I said, musicality and punch are never sacrificed along the way. Even in the album’s most complex, arguably most ambitious composition, Under A Clear Blue Sky, the band walks a brilliant tightrope between intricate design and hard-hitting, musical compactness. The closing Elegy stands out, speaking to the listener like a film score, which is why it makes sense that it sits at the very tail end of the album.
While the true Seventh Wonder devotees have long since put their favorite physical format of the album on the shelf with their other favorites, let me hint that if you’re a fan of classic progressive metal that wants a compact format and doesn’t let songs ‘fall apart’ just to flex its technical-perfection muscles, Seventh Wonder may well win over some power metal fans too with »The Testament«. »The Testament« once again bends under the weight of the band’s hugely inspired creative momentum. Seventh Wonder stay uncompromising in that regard, while stressing that year after year they keep maturing musically and moving forward. Luckily we didn’t have to wait another eight years for the new album, like we did after »Tiara«. »The Testament« is a true progressive metal ‘beast’, driven by the fascinating fine mechanics of a Scandinavian core in pursuit of flawless expressive perfection. A band that the general music-discovery ‘radar’ misses far too often. Totally unfair. Seventh Wonder remain the epitome of absolutely impeccable artistic substance, the best that classic progressive metal can offer right now, meaning the kind represented by a phalanx of bands who forged their vocabulary on huge inspiration from the first generation of progressive metal acts.
The production is brilliant. Bristling. Alive, dynamic. It achieves brilliant contrasts by intensifying individual building blocks of the sound. The content is richly colorful in its ideas and develops witty songwriting, and in its very expression the band shows, even after more than twenty years, an incredible drive to prove themselves. That much heart, loyalty and dedication to something you believe in, all concentrated in one place, is honestly hard to find.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Warriors
2. The Light
3. I Carry The Blame
4. Reflections
5. The Red River
6. Invincible
7. Mindkiller
8. Under A Clear Blue Sky
9. Elegy
Lineup:
Johan Liefvendahl – guitar
Andreas Blomqvist – bass guitar
Tommy Karevik – vocals
Andreas Söderin – keyboards
Stefan Norgren – drums
Lepo napisano, kar solzica mi je pritekla. Komaj čakam njihov koncert v Proseku.
Krasno da še kdo pozna od Slovencev to skupino. Se vidmo 4. 11. 2022 v Proseku 😀