Yeah, congratulations, but I couldn't disgree more with this review. Here's my main complaints:
Quote:
What I feel is a genuine complaint is that the album is far too content to stay in the realm of doominess throughout its 64-minute running time
Since when being doomy is reason to complain and disqualify an album? Especially when we're talking about a band with a famous appetite for doomy stuff. I could eventually understand such a complaint if Iron Maiden decided to go all doom on us, but not in Road's case.
Quote:
The long songs on Gates Of Fire worked because they shifted and changed, but these just stay in one gear.
What the hell. This is simply untrue. I'm listening to the title track right now, there are slow parts and fast parts and midtempo. Same goes for most other songs. True, the slow crushing doom is predominant thoughout the album, but that's because this was their weapon of choice in order to create the sinister ambiance needed to support the story. And it works.
How can you review a thematic album and not say a word about its subject, especially when it's quite an interesting one (ship of exiled vikings makes it to South America, treason and blood and massacres on the way) and it's treated quite well by the writer.
How can you not mention the soloing on this album, which is most of the time quite impressive.
How can you make no mention of the acoustic songs, which are particularly inspired on this album, especially Tree Of Life, a song that I can only define as pure beauty.
Voyager is a pretty complex album, albeit a bit hard to stomach, and there are a lot of points I feel you didn't touch at all. Don't take this personally, but I really feel you've treated this album quite superficially, at least in your review, if not in your listening sessions.
