Illuminata
Where Stories Unfold
Independent Release
2015
Illuminata returns after 4 years since “A World So Cold”, with their third and most essential work to date. I have explained why the third release is very important for every band in the past, so I won’t do it again… I’ll just say that Illuminata seems to have understood the significance of the situation so they did take it all the way.
I know that we have been literally burned-out by the numerous symphonic metal releases of our time. Every band thinks they can play symphonic metal yet most of the releases are somewhat like a joke. The big names of the genre have found themselves in a recycling-phase where they just present the same things over and over again and they have lost the excitement and the pompous feeling that symphonic metal music has.
Illuminata decided to do it their way and they succeed at long last. The album is influenced by the recent “larger than life” blockbuster movies, as the band says. Just think of the astonishing “Lord of the Rings” & “Hobbit” trilogies and the amazing “Game of Thrones” TV-series. The band, in order to achieve the best result, cooperated with the prominent, 60-piece Czech Film Orchestra, that did the soundtrack for the second season of “Game of Thrones”! This collaboration was excellent in every part and I’m sure the band feels the same way too. I think that the final outcome wouldn’t have been so grandiose, epic and imposing but for the Czech Film Orchestra!
The album was partly funded by the fans of the band through indiegogo. The band exceeded its goal and that gave them the chance to conclude the recordings in the best possible way along with the choirs and the Czech Film Orchestra. Mario Plank (Visions Of Atlantis) also participates in “Arbitrary Asylum”, “Entwined” and “The World Constructor”. The album has an explicit symphonic-character which will please even the most demanding fan. Everything has been done really prudently, with passion and intelligence. Having listened to the instrumental version of the tracks, I have to say that the listener will enjoy them as much as the actual album. If you’re a sucker for symphonic instrumental tracks, then you’re totally gonna revel in!
“Phoenix”, which was released as a lyric video too, is one of my favorite symphonic metal tracks in the last years. Illuminata delivered the goods with no fanfares and talking but with aspiration, artistic disposition and imagination! The fans of symphonic metal music will be delighted by “Where Stories Unfold”…
I know that we have been literally burned-out by the numerous symphonic metal releases of our time. Every band thinks they can play symphonic metal yet most of the releases are somewhat like a joke. The big names of the genre have found themselves in a recycling-phase where they just present the same things over and over again and they have lost the excitement and the pompous feeling that symphonic metal music has.
Illuminata decided to do it their way and they succeed at long last. The album is influenced by the recent “larger than life” blockbuster movies, as the band says. Just think of the astonishing “Lord of the Rings” & “Hobbit” trilogies and the amazing “Game of Thrones” TV-series. The band, in order to achieve the best result, cooperated with the prominent, 60-piece Czech Film Orchestra, that did the soundtrack for the second season of “Game of Thrones”! This collaboration was excellent in every part and I’m sure the band feels the same way too. I think that the final outcome wouldn’t have been so grandiose, epic and imposing but for the Czech Film Orchestra!
The album was partly funded by the fans of the band through indiegogo. The band exceeded its goal and that gave them the chance to conclude the recordings in the best possible way along with the choirs and the Czech Film Orchestra. Mario Plank (Visions Of Atlantis) also participates in “Arbitrary Asylum”, “Entwined” and “The World Constructor”. The album has an explicit symphonic-character which will please even the most demanding fan. Everything has been done really prudently, with passion and intelligence. Having listened to the instrumental version of the tracks, I have to say that the listener will enjoy them as much as the actual album. If you’re a sucker for symphonic instrumental tracks, then you’re totally gonna revel in!
“Phoenix”, which was released as a lyric video too, is one of my favorite symphonic metal tracks in the last years. Illuminata delivered the goods with no fanfares and talking but with aspiration, artistic disposition and imagination! The fans of symphonic metal music will be delighted by “Where Stories Unfold”…