Band:	Fairyland
Album:	The Fall Of An Empire
Style:	Symphonic power metal
Release date:	2006
A review by:	KwonVerge

01. Endgame
02. The Fall Of An Empire
03. Lost In The Dark Lands
04. Slaves Forlorn
05. The Awakening
06. Eldanie Uelle
07. Clanner Of The Light
08. To The Havenrod
09. The Walls Of Laemnil
10. Anmorkenta
11. In Duna
12. The Story Remains
13. Look Into Lost Years
14. Across The Endless Sea [bonus]

Fairyland hail from France and managed to return during 2006 under the friendly veil of Napalm Records with their second full-length release (third if you take into consideration the album "Realm Of Wonders" which was released under the bandname "Fantasia"). The name of the album is "The Fall Of An Empire" and this is the first time for me to come across this band, a band that left me some very positive thoughts being an old fan of both Rhapsody Of Fire (well, Rhapsody back then..) and Blind Guardian.

Why did i mention those two bands? Simply because Fairyland are highly influenced by them! Up to an extent this may be something negative, but in this case it's not; the blending of the influences coming straight from the aforementioned bands along with some personal references, the top quality musicianship and the high inspiration of the band work positively together in order to form an album that won't disappoint the fans of the symphonic power metal scene! Everything you're longing for is here and first of all i'd like to refer to the virtuozo guitar and keyboard work that lies adorned with well-conceived, but above all over the top well-expressed, lyrical solos, strong riffing, acoustic chords and atmosphere-evoking and enchanted symphonic keyboard passages that have a sense of times lost in the spectre of magic. As for the vocal lines, an exceptional work has been done on this sector, a blending of Hansi Kursch and Fabio Lione is vivid, the more emotional and intense passages resemble to Rhapsody On Fire's vocalist whereas the more sing-along polyphonic and sonically melodic ones show a Blind Guardian face, nevertheless the vocals are just fabulous, lyrical and epic, just like they have to be! A good addition have to be choir passages that create a cinema-like feeling along with the keyboard passages and the beautiful and emotional female vocals that make their appearance a few times in the album, like on "Eldanie Uelle", "Look Into Lost Years" and "In Duna"! The drumming is pretty good, keeping the tempo and lending groove to the songs, yet the bass lines are a bit buried in the production, i don't think that this is something so negative after all since the band is based on atmosphere a lot and this is what should be on the foreground!

In the album you'll find a variety of atmospheres, something very interesting if i may say, it never fails to sound epic, but the epic feeling is being expressed through various faces, it may sound melancholic, desperate, ominous, fairy-like or imposing! The only negative part i found on "The Fall Of An Empire", consisting of 13 compositions, has to be the fact that it lasts for more than 60 minutes. Something this may bore the listener a bit as the album slowly approaches the end, it happened to me, not to a big scale though, but it did happen, it could be the fact that i'm not a symphonic power/epic metal fan anymore for years now, but that's the only negative impression the album gave me.

All in all, Fairyland's "The Fall Of An Empire" is a very good album that won't disappoint the fans of this very scene, proceed and enjoy a trip through fairylands and dark landscapes!