Band:	Ultimatium
Album:	Hwainoo
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	2008
A review by:	Bas

01. Fight The Time
02. Dreamlife
03. Set The Sails
04. Storms
05. Descent
06. On The Edge
07. Play The Game
08. Whispers (Of The World)

Dear reader; do you like Stratovarius? If the answer to this question is no you are allowed to use the "back"-button without wasting another minute of your oh so precious time here. For those waiting for a third part to the two Elements albums; what about giving Ultimatium a try? Hailing from Finland as well this quintet is taking pretty much the same musical course as Stratovarius.

I have to admit that I don't know the complete back catalogue of the more famous fins, but I do know a couple of their CDs and what I can say is that not only the guitars and keyboard parts on Hwainoo but also the song structures and choruses are very similar. The main differences in the music are the much lower amount of solos and the vocals. Ultimatium's vocalist sounds like he does have a bit of Kotipelto in him, but unfortunately he isn't quite as good. Don't get me wrong he knows how to sing, he proved this already because he also sang on the album "Ocean's Heart" by the band Dreamtale, but Kotipelto is an extremely talented singer and beating him at his own singing-style is something that only few others can do.

Apart from the ballad "Storms" Hwainoo offers us mostly upbeat, midtempo power metal, driven mainly by the band's keyboard and guitar combo. All the tracks roughly follow the same style and some of them have pretty catchy refrains.

What can I say? It's obvious that these musicians can play nice European power metal technically speaking, but they don't offer anything that any metalhead hasn't heard yet. Really a shame because I think these guys could make a really good album, provided they add a personal touch to it. Guys, it's a bummer. You have the talent, please use it! No need to sound like a dime-a-dozen clone of one of the style's most well-known bands if you actually have the ability to make something new.