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FLAMING ROW

Progressive Metal • Germany


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Flaming Row biography
Founded in Osterode Am Harz, Germany in 2008

FLAMING ROW is an international band-project formed by Martin SCHNELLA (STEEL PROTECTOR, CAST IN SILENCE) in 2008. His principle idea was to create a concept album with many musicians and vocalists. SCHNELLA wrote all the music for the project's first album and asked his dear friend Kiri GEILE (STEEL PROTECTOR) to join him, writing the story for the concept. The core of the band also joined friends and local musicians: drummer Niklas KAHL (MY INNER BURNING, CAST IN SILENCE) and keyboardist/saxophonist Marek ARNOLD (TOXIC SMILE, 7 STEPS TO THE GREEN DOOR, STERN COMBO MEISSEN).

Recordings of the debut album "Elinoire" started in late 2008 with most of the music being recorded until the end of 2009, with SCHNELLA taking up guitars, most bass guitars, some keyboards and vocals. Gary WEHRKAMP and Brendt ALLMAN from SHADOW GALLERY were asked to contribute and agreed to additional guitar/keyboard solos and vocals. The project also includes Billy SHERWOOD (CIRCA, YOSO, ex-YES) and Jimmy KEEGAN (SPOCK'S BEARD, KENNY LOGGINS, SANTANA) on lead and backing vocals and Ali NEANDER (RODGAU MONOTONES) on some guitar solos. The album includes a number of roles and characters, distributed among the project members, and the story unfolds around a drama about a young British family.

"Elinoire" was released in 2011 through Progressive Promotion Records and it is essentially a modern rock/metal opera in the vein of AYREON's projects. The album presents a mixture of modern progressive rock/metal and mainstream metal.

Biography by aapatsos

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FLAMING ROW top albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

3.99 | 76 ratings
Elinoire
2011
3.96 | 152 ratings
Mirage - A Portrayal Of Figures
2014
4.22 | 26 ratings
The Pure Shine
2019

FLAMING ROW Live Albums (CD, LP, MC, SACD, DVD-A, Digital Media Download)

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FLAMING ROW Reviews


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 Mirage - A Portrayal Of Figures by FLAMING ROW album cover Studio Album, 2014
3.96 | 152 ratings

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Mirage - A Portrayal Of Figures
Flaming Row Progressive Metal

Review by VianaProghead
Prog Reviewer

4 stars Review Nº 733

Flaming Row is a progressive metal rock band originally from Gottingen, Lower Saxony in Germany. Flaming Row isn't contained to one genre, making use of progressive rock, heavy metal, folk elements and many more to substantiate their characteristic sound. The initial idea was to create a conceptual album with many different musicians, especially singers, both female and male, in the same vein of the Dutch Ayreon's rock opera project of Arjen Anthony Lucassen.

The band was formed by the German musician Martin Schnella in 2008. As I mentioned before, with influences from different styles of music, Flaming Row is a mixture of progressive metal and rock and mainstream metal. Schnella wrote quite a bit of music for Flaming Row and put it together to form complete songs. To further his ideas, Martin asked his friend Kiri Geile to join the band. Kiri's task was writing a story for the concept. Within the months both completed the story "Elinoire", a drama about a young British family. Therefore, their debut studio album was released named "Elinoire" in 2011. The recording sessions started in late 2008 but most all of the music was recorded until the end of 2009. A lot of friends and local musicians supported the duo and thus Flaming Row became an international band project. In 2014, Flaming Row released their sophomore studio work, this one, "Mirage - A Portrayal Of Figures".

The line up on "Mirage - A Portrayal Of Figures" is Melanie Mau (vocals), Martin Schnell (lead and backing vocals, guitar, bass and keyboards), Marek Arnold (keyboards and saxophone) and Niklas Kahl (drums). "Mirage ? A Portrayal Of Figures" has also the participation of many other artists, singers and musicians, as guests.

"Mirage - A Portrayal Of Figures" is a massive rock opera-like album that has a cohesive and definite story. This is an album massive in many ways, from the length, the story to the guest artists. These guests include members of bands such as Haken, Spock's Beard, Pain Of Salvation, and even Ayreon. This is really impressive for a band that is only on their second album. This is another conceptual album that revolves around the Magistrate, a group of alien rulers that have decided that mankind has progressed too far in their technological abilities, but not far enough in their morality or unity. The lyrical content is epic at times, delicate and quiet in others. It's obviously quite an undertaking, and I believe they pull it off pretty well. The music is the shining force with its eclectic mixture of styles keeping things interesting.

"Mirage - A Portrayal Of Figures" has eight tracks. "Mirage - A Portrayal Of Figures Pt.1" opens the album in an epic way including a playful ragtime piano and a saxophone sequence. It has multiple layers of vocals and some interesting guitar solos. "Aim L45" is a quieter, more organic and folksy tune that is very beautiful. It's a track dedicated to a more Celtic and folk flavoured type of music with a kind of medieval touch, often visited throughout this kind of albums in Ayreon's style. "Burning Sky" starts the massive feeling all over again. This is rather representative of the entire album, as the styles and tone move up and down and all over the place. It has some melodic vocals, roaring keyboard parts alongside metal heavy guitar riffs. "Journey To The Afterlife" is very different. It's strongly influenced by the blues and country music, with female vocals that provides us subtly funk-tinged guitar riffs. This is a weird but pleasant form of embedding different styles into one single track. "Alcatraz" can be seen as a regular rock song. It's a carefully southern rock flavored variety of hard melodic rock in the best way, including some nice guitar solos. "Memento Mori" is perhaps the best progressive track on the all album. It has vocals in the Shadow Gallery's style but with a very attractive female voice, with metal riffs and a strong outburst of keyboards. This is another great track. "Pictures" sees their progressive rock being mixed with a folksy edge. It hones in on the symphonic flavoured ballad and blends this with the previously described folk- oriented style. "In Appearance - A Portrayal Of Figures Pt. 2" is the final epic, an absolute highlight. It joins the main pieces, mainly alternating between a more classic progressive metal style and the folk-inspired delicate style. It has a smooth perfect vocal part followed by powerful guitars, which are played over a nice layer of keyboards.

Conclusion: "Mirage - A Portrayal Of Figures" is a progressive work in all its splendour, moving from the instrumental frenzy to the symphonic calm and from vocal jousting to the great flights. It delivers everything that the predecessor promised, symphonic, melodic, metallic and progressive rock, which is skillfully enriched with a lot of acoustic, and even folk as well as a tiny pinch of jazz. It's dynamic, flowing, changing, yet with a distinct purpose and direction. The band appears to establish themselves as fine providers of ambitious rock operas of the ensemble variety, sporting an impressive guest list of artists that appears to have been selected more by their individual qualities. They can enrich the album but not by their commercial impact value. The end result is a strong album, much more varied in style than many other productions of this kind. For those who enjoy Ayreon's style this is an album that should be on your radar.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

 The Pure Shine by FLAMING ROW album cover Studio Album, 2019
4.22 | 26 ratings

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The Pure Shine
Flaming Row Progressive Metal

Review by FragileKings
Prog Reviewer

5 stars The music on this album is so incredible that they released it with a second disc of just the music! Yes, I didn't quite expect to enjoy the second disc so much. After all, the songs and vocal parts are fabulous and tell the story of this conceptual piece, which is based on Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" series. That whole first album is a treat with astounding instrumental passages between the rock opera vocals with a host of singers taking up the different parts. It's a brilliant piece of work! But very soon I found that the music was just so exciting, so involved, so beautiful that it really could stand up on its own.

Flaming Row released their third album in December of 2019. After chalking up their previous album "Mirage: A Portrayal of Figures" as one of my favourite prog metal albums and favourite concept narrative albums of all time, I was both excited and hesitant to get the new album. The former is like Ayreon meets Dream Theater meets Haken. Since I hadn't heard the first album "Elinoire" I didn't know if "Mirage" was just a special thing or if this complex, varied and thrilling music was just how the band worked.

My first observation was that the metal element was relegated way in back of the acoustic side. In fact, it's quite the opposite of "Mirage" where the album was mostly electric with acoustic interludes. Here the acoustic instrumentation takes over and the heavier electric sequences are present and effective, but not at the front of the stage as much this time. However, that was not anything to disappoint me. All the acoustic guitar, piano, strings, woodwinds, and percussion easily won my ears over in an instant. There is simply so much beauty in the music here! So once again, I'm listening to just the instrumental versions of the tracks after having heard the whole first disc with the vocals once more through.

There's something very interesting about some the music on this new album. Right from the first listen, I recognized at least a couple of the powerful and memorable melodies. I'd heard them on "Mirage: A Portrayal of Figures". But the two stories were completely different. "Mirage" is about an alien species that tries to eliminate humans from the earth before it's destroyed by human beings, and how the survivours struggle to find a way to keep the human race from being snuffed out. "The Pure Shine" is from the Stephen King novel series mentioned above. Was there some connection?

I contacted guitarist Martin Schnella and asked about the repeated melodies. He replied saying that they had actually written much of the music for a trilogy back in 2011-13. But as his acoustic project with Melanie Mau overtook Flaming Row in popularity and also some key members left the band, the trilogy fell through. However, Martin loved much of the music he had written and decided to pass it along to the third album. It seems a bit puzzling to hear the same melodies for two different stories, but I really like hearing these again in a new sound pallet. Catch the powerful melody at 13:12 in "The Sorcerer" and compare it to "Pictures" from "Mirage: A Portrayal of Figures"at 2:39. There's also the flute melody in "Jake's Destiny" - incidentally, my pick for most awesome track on the album - that sounds really close to one in the opening track of "Mirage".

So, whether you enjoy the whole of album one with the lyrical parts and wonderfully good vocal executions or you can get into just letting the instruments speak, this album is a special work. I can enjoy either disc equally.

And if you can, I highly recommend checking out "Mirage: A Portrayal of Figures" because it's such a tremendous piece of work.

 The Pure Shine by FLAMING ROW album cover Studio Album, 2019
4.22 | 26 ratings

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The Pure Shine
Flaming Row Progressive Metal

Review by alainPP

4 stars FLAMING ROW is a German fruity melodic prog metal band, drifting a bit into pop, folk and conceptual opera musical spaces as AYREON likes to do. So modern progressive rock a little metallic, and here a touch of neo, symphonic in addition to the melodic prog which reassures. This is his 3rd album after two other very good CDs and it took him 6 years to come out. In terms of atmosphere we have musicians from THRESHOLD, PAIN OF SALVATION, SPOCK'S BEARD, PATTERN SEEKING ANIMALS, LONTACH, IGNORE THE SIGN but the most important is the pure and clean sound that FLAMING ROW has managed to develop on this opus: pure neo symphonic prog metal opera with an orchestral structure, all with its folk touches. Let's add to this preamble the story told around Stephen KING's short story "The Dark Tower".

"A Tower In The Clouds" sets off with a magical, radiant, magnificent, symphonic tune, the intro that you want without daring to ask for it. There is the air, the majestic side, the classical instruments and the atmosphere, the voice-over then the vocal flights, the same impression as when you first listen to "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence" (the 2nd CD) c 'is to say. And this sequence with "The Last Living Member" bringing with its 3 drawers, felted atmospheres, progressive climbs, breaks arranged with the use of an orchestral ensemble to give even more intensity. The male voice that sends you back to that of Peter GABRIEL, the arpeggios that follow one another and refer to the first GENESIS, everything is done to make you melt. Diffuse ARGOS tones at one point, a HARRIS-style bass at another, the rhythm then switches to AYREON, prog metal with a male voice, good riff. We can feel the listening to VANDEN PLAS to admirably mix these two genres, in short, a must! "Jake's Destiny" always follows on the dry guitar for a rather folk rendering at first, then an Irish and / or medieval bagpipe sends further. At 3 minutes it starts with the symphonic orchestration and this flute which reminds me a bit of OLDFIELD, it picks up everywhere and it has the merit of not being too scattered. Listen to the 2nd instrumental CD to research all the subtleties (yes, there are some differences on the 1st and 5th track!) Before returning to the main sung CD; but remember that after the trumpet, the bagpipe and the wild violin come here to create the jig in a very beautiful, highly technical way. The return to the main tune puts you back in suspense for the second part of the track which leaves with the enchanting voice of Mélanie.

"The Sorcerer", again with 3 under-drawers, takes us to a more complex, more elaborate and more worked territory with a typical voice à la Peter GABRIEL and the convulsions of GENESIS (wind and string instruments) and AYREON, and for Mélanie's angelic voice, we find Anneke's verve at times. A title with breaks, quieter passages, but where progression is essential both in terms of listening and the structure itself. It is obvious that incorporating tracks of 12 to 17 minutes is not done in a flash, that even the ear, even sensitized to progressive rock, will require several plays and will release certain subtleties each time, here the sax, the flute, the piano and the aerial drums will set the tone; " my best "! "The Final Attempt" attacks with once again the sulphurous and committed voice of Mélanie for a simple melodious track, rich but never boring, the singular break of rhythm towards 2'30 '' is worth the detour and there the voice-overs and the sax lead to PINK FLOYD, to PAIN OF SALVATION, to Steven WILSON (just for the jazzy limit synth followed by bass) and even some notes of VANDEN PLAS or some ELOY. The guitar becomes more angry then, the sax arrives aerial too, the voice accompanies suddenly on a tune of "Bohemian Rhapsody", we remain amazed, amazed at so many finds. "The Gunslinger's Creed" goes on with 4 sub drawers so with the continuation of Stephen KING's work, we feel the progression of the story with the notes delivered, pure, chiseled, crystalline from the start, taking by the throat; at one point we think back to Mike OLDFIELD and his typical flutes and folk tunes. Perhaps more / too many voices towards the end of this intoxicating river title at one point, but the tune resumes with an agreed ending, more orchestral to finally calm a little our ears which took it for their ranks (in French in the text!) by a surge at the limit of the musical maelstrom. This album had its release date in 2019, but also in 2020 (January 17 to be precise) for the official one in bac. This album is a pure masterpiece. This album manages to concentrate in 140 minutes (70 sung and 70 purely orchestral) all that one could hope for as a fan of progressive rock, the one who opens up to new and old sounds, the one who no longer thinks of putting sub-groups under each musician, under each artist. This album is just essential for his 2019 and 2020 Cédéthèque because there is just a standardized digest of the best prog influences in it.

 The Pure Shine by FLAMING ROW album cover Studio Album, 2019
4.22 | 26 ratings

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The Pure Shine
Flaming Row Progressive Metal

Review by kev rowland
Special Collaborator Honorary Reviewer

4 stars Flaming Row have long been one of my favourite bands, and in their midst they have some of my favourite musicians in Marek Arnold (keyboards, sax) and Martin Schnella (guitar, bass, vocals) and Melanie Mau (vocals), with the line-up completed by Niklas Kahl (drums). Together they have an incredibly commercial and accessible approach to progressive rock which is always a delight. There is something light-hearted, almost playful, about their music which never contains the navel-gazing which can accompany some bands. Amazing vocals, and the use of saxophone combined with strong arrangements and songs full of hooks combine to make each release a delight.

This is their third album, having taken some six years to record, and contains multiple guests as this is a concept and has been released as a double disc set with one CD containing the album and the second the music without the vocals. One reason for the use of guests, and the length of time it took to produce, is this is a concept album, and while I would normally welcome that, this time I have issues. Last year I took the opportunity of living and working away from home to do something I had been meaning to do for some years, which is read the complete 'The Dark Tower' series. When I say series, it is a series in the same as 'Lord of The Rings' is a series, in that the books need to be read one after other and are in fact one story broken into parts. In total there are eight books and one short story, more than 1.3 million words ? to context this, 'Lord of The Rings' (even including 'The Hobbit') is just 576,000 words, so much less than half the length. Knowing this, one can see why so many Stephen King fans (including myself) think that while Idris Elba was a fine choice for Roland Deschain, and the film is good on many levels, it has been merely influenced by the books and misses many of the main element and twists others.

Unfortunately, the same is true of this album, and I really wish they had taken another lyrical approach as for me this just does not work. To shoehorn the story into an album they have taken the same approach as the film and have concentrated on just three main characters, whereas in the book there are at least five with others coming in and out as the story progresses. I believe they were influenced far more by the film than the books, and the result is something which is even further removed from the original. The first time I played this it just jarred, and the same has been true on continued plays, but musically this is their finest album to date, and the different vocals and harmonies are just wonderful. Part of me wishes they had recorded this in their native German and then I could have simply enjoyed what is a superb piece of music, without finding the words causing me problems as I love the original story so much.

I do believe those who enjoy the books will cringe when they hear this, but if people have not read the books and only seen the film then they may well get far more from it than I. When the film was released one of my daughters asked if she could borrow the book and was rather surprised when I told her there were so many, and even more surprised when she saw just how big they were and declined. The whole album is full of flourishes and flicks of skill, it moves and breathes, and is triumph on so many levels. The vocals are what really set this off, so while the instrumental CD is interesting and enjoyable, it does not contain the raw power and emotion from the main disc. Me, I just cannot get past the words, which for me reduces an album from one which undoubtedly should be marked as being absolutely indispensable to one which is excellent on many levels, but may well be one which book lovers may have to pass by.

 Elinoire by FLAMING ROW album cover Studio Album, 2011
3.99 | 76 ratings

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Elinoire
Flaming Row Progressive Metal

Review by kev rowland
Special Collaborator Honorary Reviewer

4 stars I have recently heard independently both from guitarist and singer Martin Schnella and keyboard and sax player Marek Arnold, so am at long last listening to the debut album from Flaming Row. I had come across the follow-up a while ago, but this is the first time I have heard the 2011 debut. Martin's idea for this was to pull together a core band (the line-up is completed by drummer Niklas Kahl and singer Kiri Geile), and then get loads of mates and session musicians in to complete the ensemble. This means that the initial four musicians are extended to approximately 30, with many well-known names among them such as Jimmy Keegan and Billy Sherwood.

Complex and layered, this is a progressive metal tour de force, with plenty of vocals from the entourage, yet the guys know when to let Kiri take centre stage and provide gentle accompaniment. This has been likened to Ayreon, Shadow Gallery and Pain of Salvation, and while that is certainly true I actually believe that this sounds far more melodic and less forced than many of the albums by those bands. There are countless people involved, but it is a band first and foremost and this definitely shines through. Structured, layered and textured, but with rock at its heart, this is clever metal with great vocals that can be enjoyed from the very first time it is played, after which it just keeps growing on the listener. It is an album I have enjoyed playing immensely.

 Mirage - A Portrayal Of Figures by FLAMING ROW album cover Studio Album, 2014
3.96 | 152 ratings

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Mirage - A Portrayal Of Figures
Flaming Row Progressive Metal

Review by Ovidiu

5 stars MASTERPIECE!!!That's all I can say!I don't remember the last time when after an audition I had this type of reaction!!!WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT?????Dfinitelly,this album is like a shock for me...and I have more the 30 years of music behing me!As a prog rock or metal fan,I must say that this album has absolutelly all the ingredients to be called a milestone,a monumental album!Such a strong musical conceptual work ,a massive prog metal concept and loaded with such amazing ideas...I haven't listened for years...decades,I can say!!!Amazing from the first to the last note...that's,definitelly something that enriches and makes this wonderful world of prog metal,an even better and majestic one!!!Phenomenal interpretation,a list of unbelieveble strong musicians involved,this is the musical fruit of the mastermind behind this project,a guy calles MARTIN SCHNELLA-a genius,an unbelieveble musician!!!Dozen of auditions are necessary to fully understand this ambitious prog metal concept album!5 stsrs!Milestone album!
 Mirage - A Portrayal Of Figures by FLAMING ROW album cover Studio Album, 2014
3.96 | 152 ratings

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Mirage - A Portrayal Of Figures
Flaming Row Progressive Metal

Review by Windhawk
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator

4 stars German band FLAMING ROW was formed by Martin Schnella in 2008, and while it is a band with regular members, they specialize in the creation of conceptual productions involving a great number of guest musicians. "Mirage - A Portrayal of Figure" is their second creation of that nature, and was released by the German label Progressive Promotion Records in 2014.

Flaming Row appears to establish themselves as fine providers of ambitious rock operas of the ensemble variety, sporting an impressive guest list of contributors that appears to have been selected more by the individual qualities they can enrich the production with and less by their commercial impact value. The end result is a strong album, much more varied in style than many other productions of this kind. As the foundation of this project is progressive metal one will have to enjoy this type of music though, but the liberal inclusion of Celtic inspired music in particular gives the album a dimension of its own. Perhaps with a slightly limited customer base as the result, then again this might just make this CD interesting for people not all that interested in progressive metal as well. Still, it's a novel take on the metal-based rock opera, and a production that merits a check by those who tend to enjoy recordings of this kind.

 Mirage - A Portrayal Of Figures by FLAMING ROW album cover Studio Album, 2014
3.96 | 152 ratings

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Mirage - A Portrayal Of Figures
Flaming Row Progressive Metal

Review by kev rowland
Special Collaborator Honorary Reviewer

5 stars So, what we have here is the second album from German quartet Flaming Row, but is it? While Martin Schnella (guitars, keyboards, vocals) provided all of the music, based on a story written by Kiri Geile (vocals) and then arranged by Martin with Niklas Kahl (drums) and Marek Arnold (keyboards, saxophone), this is way more than ''just'' a band album. To be able to do justice to the story of the Third World War they have brought in a couple of guest musicians and the odd singer. Okay, to possibly put that more into perspective, the total singer and musician count on here is more than 30, and with the likes of Dave Meros, Kristoffer Gildenlow, Jimmy Keegan and Arjen Anthony Lucassen helping out on the music, and the likes of Ted Leonard, Magali Luyten, Simon Moskon and many others on the vocals, perhaps it isn't surprising that this is something a little special.

This is an over the top, multi-layered incredibly strongly produced album which sometimes stays in control as although each musician adds his piece it still somehow manages to remain a bombastic masterpiece instead of disappearing up an ego of its' own making. I challenge any lover of prog metal not to fall in love with this at the very first hearing, and just sit with the booklet and listen to the narration and singers telling the story while marveling at the melodic complexity that is displayed in front of your very ears. Although sounding nothing like Spock's Beard, it is almost as if they have captured the sheer brilliance of albums such as 'Snow', have then brought in some American melodic metal, combined it with the symphonic power of Nightwish while also ensuring that fans of the dexterity (both musically and lyrically) of Clive Nolan are well catered for.

Simply put, this is one of the most exciting and interesting albums that I have heard so far this year. I fell in love with it just a few bars into the first song and I kept hoping that I wouldn't be disappointed with the rest of the album while actually I just found more to savour. Each time I have played this new depths have come to light, and this has become for me one of those albums that actually prevents me writing about anything else as I just want to play it so much! It may be over the top, yet somehow there is enough restraint to ensure that it never really falls totally out of control, but rather shows that sometimes music needs to be more than just a couple of guys in a studio, and by adding so many others with their own techniques and styles it has allowed Flaming Row to create something very special indeed. The only question in my mind, is how on earth do they follow this? I note that in the booklet they state that this is to be continued, so that is something to look forward to indeed. www.flamingrow.de

 Elinoire by FLAMING ROW album cover Studio Album, 2011
3.99 | 76 ratings

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Elinoire
Flaming Row Progressive Metal

Review by Progrussia

5 stars Some bands start out with a five year rehearsal period followed by a tepid EP to attract some attention. Not the project of a young German lad Martin Schnella called Flaming Row. They were immediately designed for a massive scale 15-vocalist rock opera stretching the limits of a 80-minute CD format. The main method of stylistic expression is a cheesy 80s inspired metal/hard rock. With droplets of more rough metal vocal style, soft rock, country and a nod to jazzy brass and woodwinds. I like the sound - fat, guitar-centrered, no double drum overkill common to pompous power metal. Emphasis is more on listenability, although there are brief instances of shredding. Its very well composed for a beginners metal opera, kudos to Schnella, with songs forming a continuous while. For such a long record it could use more stylistic diversity (a problem solved on the follow-up, Mirage), but its still heads and shoulders above 95 percent of metal I've heard.
 Mirage - A Portrayal Of Figures by FLAMING ROW album cover Studio Album, 2014
3.96 | 152 ratings

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Mirage - A Portrayal Of Figures
Flaming Row Progressive Metal

Review by Progrussia

4 stars There has been a proliferation recently, notably from Germanic world, of what I call Broadway rock operas, that have roots as much in classic rock and pop as in metal. And unsurprisingly there is cross-contamination of members between bands, including between Flaming Row and similarly-minded, but more concise, Seven Steps to the Green Door.

Maybe I've listened too much of this stuff, but here I'm less impressed. No, it was quite a feat I imagine to arrange all ideas together and manage such a long list of contributors, and its all highly listenable and eclectic and not as sonically overblown as one might think - prog metal is really a misnomer for Flaming Row, who have actually more early 70s classic rock (in its organ-driven hard rock, country and folk rock forms) in their sound than metal. But for such a sprawling album, which, like its antecedent, makes full use of the 80-minute CD format, it could be more structured for anchoring the memory. The longer songs feel like a loose suite of ideas, and the ballads drag on. But if you can tolerate a certain amount of cheese and awkward lyrics, you'll be alright. 4,5 stars.

Thanks to Rune2000 for the artist addition. and to Quinino for the last updates

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