Lapis Lazuli - Lost
Lapis Lazuli - CD Review
Lost
CD Info
31 May 2013
Independent
13 Tracks
English lyrics
From the opening “Overture” to “My Last Story”, Lost is one musical journey you will not mind finding your ears surrounded within. Swedish metal rockers Lapis Lazuli, who were formerly known as Aftermath, consider themselves a “symphonic metal orchestra”, which is wonderfully demonstrated on Lost. Cecilia Kamf’s powerful soprano vocals are comparable to some of the leaders in the genre. Hearing her vocals is worth the price of admission alone. However, Lapis Lazuli is blessed with orchestrated keyboards from Timo Hautamäki, who also performs lead male vocals. Deep and warm bass is performed by Sandra Wallo. Tobias Rhodin does all the excellent lead electric guitar work, and Jocke Ivarsson pounds home the solid drums. Lost is the band’s fourth full length album.
The first things you will hear on Lost are the hammering drums of Ivarsson, which for me brought back memories of Carl Palmer on ELP’s “Mars Bringer of War”. Not a bad start at all. That was my favorite track on Emerson, Lake and Powell, and the “Overture” on this album, is also one of my favorites. Unfortunately it only lasts a little under 2 minutes. It is also full of grandiose keys and enough orchestration to fill an auditorium.
From there, your ears are surrounded with the soft soprano of Cecilia Kamf wading through a forest of orchestration, power drums and finger bleeding guitar. The bass that fills the soundscape does so with phantom depths. The soundscape is full of wondrous orchestration that would make any female metal fan’s ears engaged. “Floating Away”, “Darker Side of Me”, “Forgive, Never Forget”, Entr’acte: Hunted by Shadows”, and “Arise” will make you completely satisfied you chose to purchase this CD.
However, as Jason Bonham’s band says, “sometimes you have to take the good with the bad”. On “No Escape”, the growling male vocals enter the soundscape and do not leave until after “Hollow”. It is part of the story being told, but I shall forever skip through, or re-burn the CD without these tracks included.
The payoff for going through the growl/yell torture is the relief brought on by the wonderful instrumental “Entr'acte: Finding the Way Home”, which is full of brilliant keys. ThenKamf’s wonderful vocals return for “Close the Distance” through “My Last Story”.
Other than the male growls, (which seems to be a new requirement within the genre), perhaps to balance the high female notes, this is an excellent album. “Lost”, the title track, contains some normal male vocals which helped redeem the male vocal presence on the album for me.
Without the male growls this album would have reached higher marks for me. I cannot embellish the unique sound of Cecilia Kamf’s vocals enough. Timo Hautamäki has good male vocals, when he’s not growling or yelling. The story is a good one which I will not divulge the plot nor ending. Overall I would recommend Lapis Lazuli’s Lost.
Rating: 8 / 10
