Project Arcadia have plenty of undeniable talent, but I still found it hard to really get into them.
Bulgarian Power Metal aren't three words you tend to see together very often, but if you do chances are someone's talking about Project Arcadia, back with a second album and a new singer in the shape of Urban Breed (ex-Bloodbound, ex-Tad Morose). A good choice, it seems, as Urban has a powerful voice that's able to reach the highs and lows that decent Power Metal demands.
'A Time Of Changes' features a band who are not afraid to experiment a little and change the mood of their songs throughout, rather than just barrel along playing faster and faster. Their faster stuff is more classic Helloween than DragonForce, with good melody, great singing and the rather spiffy guitar playing of Plamen Uzunov. They can pen a powerful ballad, too, as evidenced by 'I Am Alive' and 'The Ungrateful Child', although two in the first five tracks is a little stifling, as aside from a nice little ninety second acoustic track, the rest of the album is all upbeat. This does mean that 'A Time of Changes' has a strong finish, with four straight out Hard Rock tracks with a good energy about them.
Project Arcadia have plenty of undeniable talent, but I still found it hard to really get into them. This may just be me, as they have received plenty of glowing reviews. This is one of those albums where I enjoy listening to it, and appreciate the intricacies of each song, but couldn't hum one if you put a gun to my head, and that's after listening to it at least ten times. So I'm not saying this isn't a good album, as it obviously is, just that it's not one that I will personally be coming back to.
Alan Holloway
Subscribe to this comment's feed
