Wuthering Heights - The Shadow Cabinet - review
Wuthering Heights - The Shadow Cabinet - review
Tracklist
Disc I01. Demon Desire
02. Beautifool
03. The Raven
04. Faith - Apathy Divine Part 1
05. Envy
06. Snow - Apathy Divine Part 2
07. Sleep
08. I Shall Not Yield
09. Reason ... ?
10. Carpe Noctem - Seize The Night
11. Midnight Song [European bonus]
12. Shadow Of A Gipsy [Japanese bonus]
Disc II [Roaming Far From Home - Live at ProgPower USA 2004] [USA bonus]
01. Tree
02. Longing For The Woods, Pt. 1
03. Longing For The Woods, Pt. 2
04. Lost Realms
05. Bad Hobbits Die Hard
06. Hunter In The Dark
07. Highland Winds
A review by
Jeff November 19, 2006
If you don't know the music of Wuthering Heights, you must know that the band plays Power Metal with Progressive music and even folk orientations. As an example, "Demon Desire" is a real blasting Power Metal song with fast rhythm and epic symphonies. On the other hand, "Faith - Apathy Divine Part 1", with its nice melody produced by violin is clearly oriented toward Folk Metal music. "The Shadow Cabinet" is full of surprises anyway, all the songs are long in general with a lot of break and variations, it's complex but varied and the progressive side of the music always gives something more to the tracks of "The Shadow Cabinet". It's maybe not so easy of access on a side but it's never linear and the music of Wuthering Heights is really intelligent.
"The Shadow Cabinet" is the best release of the band out to date. The performance of Patrik Johansson (I say it again but this guy is one of the best singer of the Heavy Metal scene) is amazing. The performance of Martin Arendal (Manticora's guitarist and new "member" of Wuthering Heights) gives power to the music of the band and Erik Ravn (main compositor) didn't lack of inspiration to write the songs of this album. The only (little) problem maybe, comes from the fact that the music of Wuthering Heights is a bit complex and can go in a dozen of directions. It's not really problematic but sometime a bit messy and disturbing. But don't worry, you can be sure that you'll quickly understand the music of the band and after two or three listening, you'll just enjoy the music of "The Shadow Cabinet", which is by the way perfectly mixed and recorded.
Can we say that we're in front of one of the best albums of the year 2006? I think so? "The Shadow Cabinet" is something special, a real demonstration of a fantastic talent. With its "crazy" mix of Progressive Power and Folk Metal, the Danish combo proves that we can still do original album. Just amazing!
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 10 |
| Production: | 9 |
Written by Jeff | November 19, 2006
Comments
Comments:
18
Visited by
163 users
 Posts: 5102 |
Posts: 5102
Wuhu finally a review of my favorite band. This album is a killer...even better than 'Far From A Madding Crowd'. If you haven't heard it...shame on you  EDIT: not better than, but just as good as FFAMC
----  Dreams are made so we don't get bored when we sleep
Loading...
|
 Posts: 1023 |
Posts: 1023
Have to check it out! There's not many danish bands out there but the few of them are really good!
Loading...
|
|
Posts: 825  |
Posts: 825
This album is total killer. The best of the band, and one of the best of this year. I'd also notice neoclassical influences on Carpe Noctem.
---- My account on other musical pages: http://www.last.fm/user/Pozito/ http://rateyourmusic.com/~Talvi
Loading...
|
| Opium Magnet
Account deleted |
|
| PyRaMaZe
Account deleted |
Loading...
|
|
Posts: 14 |
|
|
Posts: 32  |
Posts: 32
Awesome album....a perfect 10. I say the same about 'Far From The Madding Crowd'...their last album. Great band.
Loading...
|
| Posts: 1023 |
Posts: 1023
Not easy to get in to, not at all for a power metal band which is not very usual  But it's a great damn record! Demon Desire gets stuck in your head directly and almost the whole album is pure satisfaction. And awesome musicians/harmonies/rythms! This really is a strong 8/10  Get this album!!
Loading...
|
 Posts: 13290 |
Posts: 13290
I really need to listen to this album again.. this album reminds me of being on a bus driving back home from Hellfest 2007 - I had it on my mp3 player and fell asleep while listening to it. hahahaha yeh - I love this album, and the previous one.. it has been a while though
Loading...
|
| Posts: 5102 |
Posts: 5102
I so hop they will play Demon Desire and one of the Apathy Divines at ProgPower...along with all their other great songs of course
---- Dreams are made so we don't get bored when we sleep
Loading...
|
| Posts: 5102 |
Posts: 5102 Written by BobMoron on 22.11.2006 at 01:48 I know it's been a while since you asked that question, but I'm finally able to answer one of them. I bought the US version of the album as well a couple of months back. The bonus disc "Roaming Far From Home" is a live recording of their show at ProgPower, but the sound quality is rather poor. The songs performed are good though and you can hear that the band have a lot of fun and the crowd as well. Can't remember the titles, but I'll get back with those
---- Dreams are made so we don't get bored when we sleep
Loading...
|
|
Posts: 14 |
|
| Posts: 5102 |
Posts: 5102
No worries Have you heard Shadow Of A Gipsy? I haven't yet but would like to know if it's worth tracking down
---- Dreams are made so we don't get bored when we sleep
Loading...
|
|
Posts: 74 |
Posts: 74 Written by GT on 14.03.2009 at 15:41 Shadow of the gipsy is a lackluster song. I have the album with the live tracks from Roaming far from home tour. this is also not much to listen to. Since it wasnt intended to official WH live the quality is bad. The best copy I recommend is with Midnight Song bonus track. Very good song.
Loading...
|
| Posts: 5102 |
Posts: 5102 Written by Iron Priest on 03.05.2009 at 18:19 Thanks for letting me know. I have the European version too so yeah I know the song and I agree about the quality
---- Dreams are made so we don't get bored when we sleep
Loading...
|
 Posts: 2955 |
Posts: 2955
Nice.. the prog elements within the power metal makes their music a lot harder to get into. Not my cup of tea, but its easy to notice that all the praise this band receives is fair.
----  ---- member of the true crusade against old school heavy metal, early 80s thrash, NWOBHM, traditional doom, first and second wave black metal, old school death metal, US power metal, 70s prog rock and atmospheric doomsludgestoner. o/
Loading...
|
|
Posts: 489  |
Posts: 489
What elevates this album above so many others is the amazing lyrics and ideology behind them. I Shall Not Yield and Carpe Noctem especially are two of the most powerful and inspiring songs I have ever heard because the lyrics and singing effectively show the determination of someone who will carry on no matter what the world throws at him without glossing over the difficulties.
---- Despair is death, and I'm not interested in dying. Member of the True Crusade against True Crusades
Loading...
|
|
Posts: 2 |
Hits total: 8695 | This month: 2