
Kenziner
The Last Horizon
Power Prog Records
2014
Kenziner returns some fifteen years (?!) after their last album. That’s quite a break from the music biz, I suppose. They seem to have returned with a renewed line-up with only the band’s mastermind Jarno Keskinen, the driving force behind Kenziner and also Virtuocity, having “survived”. (Isn’t that quite obvious?! Well I suppose after the Tolki-less Stratovarius and Tiamat’s founder J. Edlund saying that he wishes to depart the band but would be cool for them to go on without him, nothing can be taken for granted, I suppose!)
The approach to the music is not dramatically different than it was some fifteen years ago, in the sense that Keskinen is still going for power metal with slightly prog tendencies, only this time since he’s got Book of Reflections and Status Minor vocalist Markku Kuikka, who in contrast to Stephen Fredrick (ex-Firewind, Kinrick) has a slightly more reserved and mellow voice.
The album is by no means bad and has a decent flow with the tracks always having some nice melody going on at certain part, but on the other hand, there are some by the numbers “power metal” melodies, in there that you might have heard a few too many times. Some of those, neoclassical mannerisms, tend to be so boring sometimes that unless you are really inspired about their usage, they end up sounding quite trite and tiresome. While there’s a healthy amount of inspiration on the album, a bit of it is on “auto-pilot” mode too and I am afraid that – that’s not doing it any particular favors.
“Run for Your Life” is an ideal up-tempo opener, that however, has some more melodic and slower passages later on and keeps the interest quite high, but right up next comes “Our Times” with little invention and every boring trick in the book, to put you right to sleep.
“Heroes Ride” has a more consistent medium tempo and with its healthy keyboard flourishes and Boalsy vocal mannerisms, that bring to mind some of the most dramatic moments of “Trilogy” manages to endear itself enough. The thing is – since this song succeeds in doing so this “formula” is instantly reused, pretty much – as is – on the subsequent “Devour the World” and “End of an Era” – impressive – dramatic, mid-tempo songs that aren’t bad at all (obviously they’re not the end all – hymns – but they’re quite good songs… nonetheless !)
In “Keep the Flame Alive” things are way more pomp-wimpy and melodic – think of it as “Odyssey” even the vocals are a bit “higher” and more “extravagant”...
“I am Eternal” is seven minutes long or even more and it goes on and on and it rather pointless as it’s rather boring really, the first song that really is pretty unimpressive as a whole.
Next up there’s “No Turning Back” with some pretty fast keyboards going on embellishing the constant double-bass drumming, in a very typical Strato-fashion... not something that I have really missed terribly, since the heyday of the originators of that style... and their unceremonious crash ‘n burn.
The title track “The Last Horizon” which boasts a playing time of some eight minutes and has a rather section or two, only does more of the same “guitar Vs keyboard” battles at various speeds with Kuikka, singing some small verses every now and again. At best it’s awkward...
Last but not least is the ballad “Perfect Moment” that closes the album in a pretty peaceful and nice – serene way.
It is a decent melodic metal album, far better than a lot of stuff that has been put out by a lot of people far more famous than Keskinen. If you’re into Firewind, Stratovarius and Yngwie and all that stuff, but you have felt rather disappointed, by their recent releases, this might be quite a decent substitute, until any of those people decide to “shape up”. It’s decidedly better in the songwriting department and not any worse performance wise. The production could have been a little better, but then again – the more copies you sell – and yeah – you can exclude Yngwie’s garage demos (last couple of albums) from that last statement...
The approach to the music is not dramatically different than it was some fifteen years ago, in the sense that Keskinen is still going for power metal with slightly prog tendencies, only this time since he’s got Book of Reflections and Status Minor vocalist Markku Kuikka, who in contrast to Stephen Fredrick (ex-Firewind, Kinrick) has a slightly more reserved and mellow voice.
The album is by no means bad and has a decent flow with the tracks always having some nice melody going on at certain part, but on the other hand, there are some by the numbers “power metal” melodies, in there that you might have heard a few too many times. Some of those, neoclassical mannerisms, tend to be so boring sometimes that unless you are really inspired about their usage, they end up sounding quite trite and tiresome. While there’s a healthy amount of inspiration on the album, a bit of it is on “auto-pilot” mode too and I am afraid that – that’s not doing it any particular favors.
“Run for Your Life” is an ideal up-tempo opener, that however, has some more melodic and slower passages later on and keeps the interest quite high, but right up next comes “Our Times” with little invention and every boring trick in the book, to put you right to sleep.
“Heroes Ride” has a more consistent medium tempo and with its healthy keyboard flourishes and Boalsy vocal mannerisms, that bring to mind some of the most dramatic moments of “Trilogy” manages to endear itself enough. The thing is – since this song succeeds in doing so this “formula” is instantly reused, pretty much – as is – on the subsequent “Devour the World” and “End of an Era” – impressive – dramatic, mid-tempo songs that aren’t bad at all (obviously they’re not the end all – hymns – but they’re quite good songs… nonetheless !)
In “Keep the Flame Alive” things are way more pomp-wimpy and melodic – think of it as “Odyssey” even the vocals are a bit “higher” and more “extravagant”...
“I am Eternal” is seven minutes long or even more and it goes on and on and it rather pointless as it’s rather boring really, the first song that really is pretty unimpressive as a whole.
Next up there’s “No Turning Back” with some pretty fast keyboards going on embellishing the constant double-bass drumming, in a very typical Strato-fashion... not something that I have really missed terribly, since the heyday of the originators of that style... and their unceremonious crash ‘n burn.
The title track “The Last Horizon” which boasts a playing time of some eight minutes and has a rather section or two, only does more of the same “guitar Vs keyboard” battles at various speeds with Kuikka, singing some small verses every now and again. At best it’s awkward...
Last but not least is the ballad “Perfect Moment” that closes the album in a pretty peaceful and nice – serene way.
It is a decent melodic metal album, far better than a lot of stuff that has been put out by a lot of people far more famous than Keskinen. If you’re into Firewind, Stratovarius and Yngwie and all that stuff, but you have felt rather disappointed, by their recent releases, this might be quite a decent substitute, until any of those people decide to “shape up”. It’s decidedly better in the songwriting department and not any worse performance wise. The production could have been a little better, but then again – the more copies you sell – and yeah – you can exclude Yngwie’s garage demos (last couple of albums) from that last statement...