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Musicians:
- Olle Mörck: Lead vocals en akoestische gitaar.
- Nicklas Magnusson: lead gitaar.
- Jonas Heidgert: Zang en drum.
- Elias Holmlid: Synthesizers en piano.
- Christer Pedersen: Bas
- Guestmusicians:
- Maria Andersson: Viool.
- Gus (Dream Evil, Firewind, Mystic Prophecy): gitaar solo op 4
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- Released : mei 2002
- Label : Black
Lotus Records
- Total time : 51'44''
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Website:
- http://fade.to/dragonland
- Contact:
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Tracklist:
- Hundred Years
Have Passed 2’24
- Majesty
Of The Mithril Mountains 5’29
- Through
Elven Woods And Dwarven Mines 5’32
- Holy
War 6’47
- Calm
Before The Storm 4’49
- The
Return To The Ivory Plains 6’04
- Forever
Walking Alone 4’55
- Blazing
Hate 5’15
- A
Thousand Points Of Light 6’01
- One With All 4’23
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The Band.
From Gothenburg
Dragonland emerged, founded by lead guitarist Nicklas Magnusson of
Prophanity and Jonas Heidgert (summer ’99), and later on joined by Daniel
Kvist (ex. Sacrilege, now Nightshade and Taetre) and Christer
Pedersen (Nightshade).
Only 3 months before the album would be recorded guitarist Daniel quit to
the benefit of Olle Mörck, and at this time also keyboard player Elias
Holmlid was hired. The
recording of the debut album (“The battle of the ivory plains”) took
place in LOS ANGERED RECORDINGS with Andy la Roque (KING DIAMOND) producing
it.
In March 2002 they entered the supreme Studio FREDMAN (HAMMERFALL, IN
FLAMES, ARCH ENEMY, SINERGY etc.) to record the successor to the first
album, entitled “Holy war”, the sequel and end of the Dragonland
chronicles.
The
Music.
A
blend of Rhapsody, Sonata Arctica, Stratovarius, Nightwish, Helloween and
some originality gives you Dragonland.
A style that you can call fantasy, epic, prog(speed)metal. You certainly
can’t avoid a comparison with Rhapsody, as their music comes closest. And
they withstand the comparison. The same power, the same energy, the same
style. I can even add that Dragonland is even faster, without having a
negative influence on their music, on the contrary. Except that (I presume
because of the budget) the use of a real choir on the last Rhapsody gives
Rhapsody a slight advantage on the overall-sound.
With this music, you can hear the fighting and the galloping of the horses,
you can feel the adventures, you almost go along on the same quest, it’s
like a soundtrack for a fantasy movie or book.
I always liked these “SF & Fantasy”, “Sword & Sorcery”
stories. Stories with dragons, elves, dwarves, heroes and other creatures
that live in a fantasy world like Tolkien’s Middle Earth.
This “Holy War” is the sequel and the end of the Dragonland Chronicles.
I would have preferred a vinyl album because this music has a lot of lyrics,
which makes them rather hard to read in the booklet. (But it’s not the
first time we miss the LP-covers, sniff)
I can’t really put a favourite forward on this CD, as they are all of a
very high quality. Only in
“Through Elven Woods And Dwarven Mines”, I have the feeling the lyrics
don’t fit into the song. He can’t really sing them in a good timing as
if there are too many words per sentence.
Especially
the keyboards (Elias Holmlid) play an important role on this album. He
creates new original sounds and combines them very well. For example: in
“Blazing Hate”, he uses a combination of organ with a delayed choir
sound, which gives a very peculiar effect.
“Forever Walking Alone” is a beautiful ballad, with splendid parts of
acoustic and electric guitars and piano.
The CD ends with a very quiet song that grows to a climax of symphonic
sounds.
Olle Mörck has a very “epic-fantasy-metal” voice that fits well into
this style of music. In fact they are all real virtuosi on their
instruments.
If you like Rhapsody, you’ll certainly like Dragonland. And it’s only
Dragonland’s second album.
Reviewed by : Danny 'Camil' Focke
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