Xandria - The Wonders Still Awaiting (2023)

Making a comeback after six years and a completely new line-up, today we have Marco Heubaum and Xandria with “The Wonders Still Awaiting”. Featuring 74 minutes of intense and bombastic music, the band is ready to continue their story and unleash upon fans of the genre lush orchestrations and dramatic arrangements.

Opening with the explosive “Two Worlds”, we are instantly reminded of the band’s knack for dramatic vocal arrangements alongside heavy distorted guitars and growls thrown into the mix. While the band’s style remains at its core the same, there is a certain freshness that new vocalist Ambre Vourvahis brings into the mix. Tracks like “Reborn”, “You Will Never Be Our God”, and “Ghosts” are perfect examples of their dynamic songwriting and perfectly managed tempo changes.

Dramatic openings of songs like “Your Stories I’ll Remember” and “Paradise” perfectly showcase the band’s versatility and cinematic nature, making their sound one of the best in the scene. While many bands in the genre have opted to add more Pop-ish elements into their music, Xandria keeps things strictly Symphonic Metal with a good dose of intensity and additional instrumentation, as “The Maiden and the Child” and “Astèria” showcase.

As a whole, “The Wonders Still Awaiting” is a killer return from a new faced Xandria with core elements unchanged and a whole new set of tricks up their sleeves. If you like female-fronted Symphonic Metal, this release is one of the best produced, most cinematic, and engaging of 2023, so do not miss out on this one.

Label: Napalm Records

Release: February 3rd, 2023

Genre: Symphonic Metal

Country: Germany