Blacklands – A New Dawn (2013)

Featuring almost 80 minutes of beautifully crafted Progressive/Melodic Rock, today we have Germany’s Blacklands and their latest release “A New Dawn”. In this very competitive and highly repetitive music scene, it is quite refreshing to hear such a heartfelt and powerful release. With “A New Dawn”, the band takes traditional Melodic Rock with Progressive elements and ads lush female vocals for a great dramatic and highly pleasing effect, something that will surely appeal to fans from Gothic Metal all the way to Progressive Rock aficionados.

Opening the release with the melancholic “Cold Embrace”, we get first glance of the excellent keyboards of Manfred Reinecke together the vivid and sultry voice of Moja Nardelli. This song also shows the clear Progressive elements in the band’s music perfectly mixed with their more melodic and at times Symphonic/Gothic Metal influences. With a folky edge, “Dance of The Witches” nicely changes up the pace and showcases the band’s versatility.

Never sounding like a copy of other bands, the proggy “A New Dawn” delivers excellent guitar solos and atmospheric passages that are nicely adorned by Moja’s vocals. Going into more traditional Prog/Power Metal sections, “Remember Your Time” features the perfect balance between energetic sections and melancholic passages. In a more ‘general appeal’ tone we have tracks like the ballads “I Can Hear Your Heart”, “Love Will Never Die”, and the very pleasing “Floating Pictures”.

Our favorite track in this release is the solemn “Memories”, a song with a very warm and heartfelt vibe that is very beautifully crafted. For fans of marathonic Prog Rock pieces, “Power Play” delivers 15 minutes of excellent music.  Closing with “The Meaning”, the band yet again shows another side of their multiple personalities and closes on a very mellow and relaxing note.

In general, “A New Dawn” surely has something for everybody. Featuring ballads, progressive rock/metal pieces, and more melodic/symphonic songs, it sure packs a lot of value for one release. If you are a fan of anything from Gothic Metal to Progressive Rock and love female vocals, Blacklands is one band you need to keep an eye out for.

Release: March 9th, 2013

Genre: Melodic/Progressive Rock / Melodic Metal

Country: Germany