Narnia - Course Of A Generation (2009)

Narnia is a Swedish band that features a very impressive lineup of musicians and has been around since 1996. The main difference between “Course Of A Generation” and “Enter The Gate” is the change of vocalists they made, bringing German Pascual to their lineup.  

The main reason Power Metal is not one of my favorite musical genres because plenty of releases in this genre sound very alike. And “Course Of A Generation” is the perfect example. While the music is very good and the overall album production is stellar, it feels like I’ve heard the same songs somewhere else, there is nothing new or innovative about this release. That being said, we will assume that there are no other Power Metal bands in the world, for the rest of this review.

German Pascual’s vocals are pretty good since he has very good range and provides enough emotion to make all the songs work, this is very crucial for a band when they have to change vocalists, but for Narnia, this worked perfectly.

The guitar work as expected is stellar, courtesy of Carljohan Grimmark featuring great solos here and there, and very solid melodies for all songs. Drumming wise, “Course Of A Generation” is very solid, since the drum tracks lays a perfect foundation for all other elements to come together.

One song that grabbed my attention was “One Way To Freedom” that starts with an unfamiliar futuristic beat, and keeps the futuristic theme throughout the whole song. I must say that this is the song that I liked the most of the album since it sounds a bit different from the rest of the album (sometimes like Ayreon’s work), and it gives a nice break from the traditional structures of the first songs of the album. After this song the keyboards are more noticeable for the rest of the album, and provided a nice change from the first songs.

In general this album was going to be labeled as one of the ‘standard’ good Power Metal albums out there, but the last few songs show a different side of the band, and while they are nothing innovative, they make this release be better than the ‘standard’ album of the genre.

Release: July 24th, 2009

Country: Sweden