These Swedes sound like they've been holed up in their castle for decades, honing their particular craft to perfection. Said craft being slow to mid-tempo classic metal. Clean, smooth guitars; epic keyboards; repetitive hooks and echoing background vocals. The vocals aren't too high or too dramatic. They strip down to just drums and lead guitar at times, with the bass and keyboards faint in the mix. It's actually quite relaxing. In the early '80s, this type of music for some strange reason struck fear into the hearts of fundamentalists and made kids feel rebellious. In today's musical climate, it's about as safe sounding as a kitten's meow.
The repetitive choruses house lyrics mostly of the blatant Christian variety, with themes of searching, journeying, and hoping woven throughout almost every song. It's unfortunate that there's none of the subtlety or symbolism of C.S. Lewis, the author who created the metaphorical fantasy world they're named after, but being direct is all part of the pattern Narnia copies meticulously.
Narnia obviously have strong enough technical musicianship to get on Nuclear Blast, and the label has supplied pristine production values. With their funny Swedish pronunciations of English (for example, "I breathe your spirit/I breathe your love" becomes "I breed..."), Narnia stand alone as a perfect, sterilized replica of an extinct species. They're formulaic, but more than skilled enough to sate the thirst of die-hard formula drinkers or newbies too young to remember and despise early '80s metal. If you want good classic metal with Christian lyrics, this is really all you've got.
3 tocks
Other coverage for this album
Art for the Ears 1999Reviewed by Marco PovervestNarnia is a Swedish band that came forth out of the band Borderline. Axis of this band are vocalist Christian Liljegren and guitarist Carl Johan Grimmark who are both part of the non-functional Modest Attraction too. Musically Narnia makes melodic metal that can be compared to bands like Helloween and XT. Their debut-CD led to a deal with Pony Canyon and later on with Nuclear Blast. Last year the…Similar sounding releases
1999Balance of PowerTen More Tales...
1994Veni DomineMaterial Sanctuary
2002DomainThe Artefact
2000Rob RockRage of Creation
1995Broken SilenceDiscerning the Times
1994KreysonCrusaders
