Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Allen, Russell & Lande, Jorn
Label: Frontiers Records
Released: 2014
Running time: 50:15
Rating: 4/5
Is it even worth wasting words on the fourth studio album from the joint project of two of the finest hard rock and heavy metal vocalists of the new generation, Russell Allen (Symhony X, Adrenaline Mob) and Jorn Lande (Jorn, ex-Masterplan, ex-The Snakes, ex-Ark,,…)? Yes. Because the new record is once again totally gripping and top-notch. So the job was to check the form of both singers and weigh up how much has changed in the basic musical direction, which was already laid down by the project’s trilogy of previous albums.
Compared to the earlier work, the new album »The Great Divide« brings a noticeable shift in musical direction. Not a critical one by any means, but a noticeable one. Simple as that. Allen and Lande picked the seasoned Finnish musical genius and workaholic Timo Tolkki, founder of the famous Finnish power metallers Stratovarius, as their main and first collaborator. Tolkki is exactly the one tipping the scales: his musical outlook brings a hugely important change and just the right refresh to the project’s otherwise well-defined musical groove. His predecessor Magnus Karlsson (Primal Fear, Starbreaker, Last Tribe, solo) is a tough figure to replace in this respect. He is one of those legionnaires (extremely prolific and perceptive composers and arrangers) who have written a pile of excellent studio records for countless artists over the course of their careers, including, for example, Magnum vocalist Bob Catley. Tolkki is a great veteran and a musical guru! He’s a multi-instrumentalist, a baroquely ornamented guitarist of the Malmsteen school who, besides his producer’s chops, is also known for his finely tuned knack for composing. He’s an extremely strong »songwriter«. So he’s honestly the handiest solution among the available European (one-man-band) weapons right now.
Tolkki thought of everything. He did a top-notch job, even if it was expected and tried and tested. He repackaged a few of his old motif »stews«, but combined with vocalists like Lande and Allen they work differently from what you’d expect from the usual reach of Tolkki’s standard-issue studio products. That’s a very good thing. On »The Great Divide« Timo Tolkki created an incredibly dense sonic picture and backed the rhythmic framework with a solid, warm dynamic backdrop of hard-hitting guitar phrasing, reinforced with arrangements of orchestral-symphonic elements and even programmed sound loops, a recognizable trademark of his past studio work. He seasoned it all with a sense of dark drama-theater moment, which Tolkki, as one of the most important figures in European power metal, naturally carried over to the album from metal waters. The album has quite a few phrases, backed by stock rhythmic patterns (Dram About Tomorrow), that could easily and effectively work in Stratovarius or any of Tolkki’s other musical projects (Avalon, Revolution Reneissance) . As a seasoned master, Tolkki of course also made sure to liven up the mid-eight passages, where he reeled off a few razor-sharp guitar solos. This man knows exactly where and how to contrast the points in the songs, and that fact consistently guarantees an extremely sharp edge to the moods and a dynamic ebb and flow of the atmospheres.
Lande and Allen »rattle off« their vocal lines in the same registers. Both singers suit the same basic tuning. That’s why they complement each other so well, and why in this range they can build the most power through their vocal execution. They keep up an incredible expressive explosiveness and part ways again over the amount of throaty rasp, while in the clean approach they sit close together in tone. Unlike his markedly aggressive approach in Sympony X, Allen mostly sings with a strictly clean melodic stance, the way he once sang on older Symphony X albums like »V (The New Mithology Suite)« (2000), while his colleague Jorn Lande keeps up a markedly raspy vocal stance, which is his usual standard on the studio work of the band Jorn. Both vocalists once again show enormous devotion to, and inspiration from, the figure and work of his holiness Ronnie James Dio. At every step of the album. Picking favorites is up to you. But first and foremost you have to be a lover of the great aesthetic of walking that fine, seemingly thin line between the elements of classic heavy metal and melodic-rock pomp, specifically one weighed down with symphonic elements, even though at its core (in terms of decibels) it’s an extremely cranked-up hard rock album, packaged in its recognizable recipe. Lady Of Winter (no, it’s not a cover of Crimson Glory!) has one of the strongest choruses on the album, and the excellent hard-hitting ballad of the title track or, toward the end, Reaching for the Stars, are in no way inferior.
After three excellent studio albums that close out the trilogy, namely »The Battle« (2005), »The Revenge« (2007) and »The Showdown« (2010), the change of musical direction with »The Great Divide« is more than welcome. Timo Tolkki plays the leading role here, while Russel Allen and Jorn Lande of course deliver the best of their vocal abilities that we’ve come to expect from them. Fans of their work, whether in their home bands or in other musical collaborations of the past, will definitely find plenty of reasons to enjoy this album too. The parallels with Stratovarius are also quite sensible, but with their production and motif messiness they tease just the right amount. In that sense, they give the feeling that with »The Great Divide« we’ve actually got the freshest album of the Allen/Lande project’s career, in places slyly and skillfully shod with Tolkki’s power metal. In just the right dose.
»The Great Divide« is also the darkest of the four albums, surely once again thanks to Tolkki’s »touch«. Both singers again squeeze out the melodic optimum in their vocal lines. The verses, teamed with the choruses, once again work full-bloodedly in building up the drama-theater mood, culminating in bombastically cranked-up chorus melodies that are instantly infectious. A few of the chorus melodies are fiercely catchy, which is no longer any kind of novelty, just living up to the standards we’ve come to expect from this exceptional vocal duo. So the magic keeps shining on, with unstoppable intensity in both performance and composition.
Lineup
Jorn Lande – vocals
Russell Allen – vocals
Timo Tolkki – guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, arrangements, programming
Jami Huovinen – drums
Production
Timo Tolkki
Track list
1. Come Dream With Me
2. Down From The Mountain
3. In The Hands Of Time
4. Solid Ground
5. Lady Of Winter
6. Dream About Tomorrow
7. Hymn To The Fallen
8. The Great Divide
9. Reaching For The Stars
10. Bittersweet
