New Narnia

What’s in a name when it comes to metal? It needs to fit both the music and the message the band wants to get through, and with a name like Narnia I found it rather hard to take this band seriously even before I had heard a single second. Seeing as how this was released through Massacre Records which usually puts out acceptable power metal, I did not entirely lose faith however. Reading the musician’s previous experience and reading reviews of former albums of theirs didn’t exactly lower the bar either. Snooping around made me find out a little bit about their lyrical content which seems to be circling around the chronicles of Narnia obviously and Christianity otherwise. A challenge to swallow by some, but I don’t really care, because in the end, it’s the music that matters and while you may expect some goof band trying to be funny, you’re wrong. This kicks ass.
While this might not be anything new, this is not your generic power metal completely dominated by double-bass pounding, castrated vocalists, and ever so increasingly boring songs that’ll leave you mentally disabled for hours to come. These guys put some serious thought into their songwriting and never fail in making every song interesting with a few exceptions. The flowery yet incredibly catchy melodies stick in your head from the first spin, and quite frankly, I couldn’t care less if they never got out of there. Chanting on about ships of hope, the presence of Aslan and various other mildly boring stuff never takes the focus away from the music. Christian bands tend to focus a little too much on the lyrics and the message instead of perfecting the music first and foremost. Even though I’m not familiar with their earlier works, Narnia seem to have cracked the code long ago, as the performance is more or less top notch from opener Sail Around the World all the way to Behind the Curtain. The riffs are chugging away rather nicely and with enough variety to keep my attention at bay and with exceptionally performed and always thrilling neo-classical solos, they will definitely capture the rock-star in you.
What really drive this forward are the incredible vocal melodies that possess every single chorus on every single song on the entire album. German Pascual’s great sense of melody combined with his smooth and charismatic voice is impossible to dislike, and the way he shapes the songs into something that always wakes interest is a critical part of this band. Without him this would have sounded a lot more dull and plain. Since this is my first experience with this band, I’ll be careful comparing this to their previous releases with other vocalists, but if they’re all as solid as this it should definitely be something to dig further into.
The first band that suddenly popped up in my head after spinning this a certain number of times, is the Allen Lande alliance. The melodic approach and how the riffs are built around the vocals to support them all the way is very much the same, and even though the riffs aren’t that varied, complex or mind-boggling in any way, they carry sense of melody, catchiness and sheer joy with them in nearly every song. The formula for every tune is basically the same, and even though various methods works better on some songs than others, Narnia brings forth nothing but quality all the way. If there were to be a downside with this except the silly lyrics, it has to be that the album drags a little bit towards the end with some tracks that could more or less be described as filler. They seem to be a little out of ideas, and I doubt that anyone would notice their absence at all. In all fairness though, this is an album chock full of entertaining moments that mostly consists of extreme catchiness and guitar-solos that’ll boggle the mind from time to time. If you’re one of those who have been missing power metal on the site lately, then check this out. If you don’t… I’ll slap you.