Band:	Lanfear
Album:	This Harmonic Consonance
Style:	Power metal, Progressive metal
Release date:	February 24, 2012
A review by:	Ag Fox

01. Giorno Del Giudizio
02. Colours Of Chaos
03. By-Product Nation
04. The Reverend
05. Idiopathic Discreation
06. Camera Silens
07. I, Robo Sapiens
08. Spectrophobia
09. Word Not Spoken
10. Disharmonic Consonance

The last time I checked Lanfear's band profile here on Metal Storm, they have 4 fans despite being around for almost two decades and the profile has been in the data base since 2008. Listening to This Harmonic Consonance, it's easy to see how they have gained, on average, one fan per year. Not saying this band is bad at all, but they are too soft and too extreme?

50% of the readers would probably be throwing up their hands in frustration on MS's hiring of a reviewer with bipolar disorder, and another 49% would be shaking their head in disgust, yet allow me to explain a bit further. This Harmonic Consonance is not a bad album at all, yet it's also rather niche. Those that love their metal dirty, raw and angry would find it not visceral enough, and those that prefer to feast their ears upon the hyper melodic tendencies of power / heavy metal, or even melodic death would probably find it too aggressive and primal, especially in the vocal department. The remaining few would probably be alienated by the fact that it's "too progressive", i.e. not many memorable hooks or melodies. So there you have it: an album that's not bad, but so niche that not many would know how to appreciate it. I guess this is a case of trying to please everyone, but for those who appreciate it, it is actually a pretty rewarding experience.

Truth be told, I have initially dismissed this album, but something about it kept tugging at me to get back to it, and that something went from barely detectable to unfolding itself into grandiose soundscapes. Not in the epic-synthy-choir-orchestral-filmscore sense, but the type of unfolding when you start to appreciate and understand the music on another level, when the memorable bits that were so shy initially finally start to strip - slowly, and ever so tantalisingly.

The vocals are rather hard to get into, but Nuno Fernandes has actually proven what a versatile singer he is and has his vocal dynamics on full display here. The rest of the musicians are undoubtedly skilled and I don't see any problem with the production at all either. However, even when overcoming the initial high barriers, it's still fair to say that This Harmonic Consonance still lacks some excitement factor, which prevents it from getting a higher score. Other than that, if you are into melodic, progressive and extreme metal, it's quite likely that you would find quite a lot of depth (both musically + lyrically) and satisfaction from this otherwise overlooked album.