LEFT TO BURN

Salva's long awaited second album, "Left to burn", is finally out and I'm happy to say it has been well worth the wait. They have even exceeded my expectations with this new release. I was a big fan of their first album, "A handful of earth", and have been waiting anxiously for the follow up. The rich symphonic prog with folk and metal-leanings is still the foundation for Salva's music but they have evolved and refined both their sound and their compositional skills since the debut album. This is noticable (at least to my ears) throughout the album.

I have a hard time picking out favorite tracks but if I was forced I would say; "Ord ver. 2", a beautiful folky song with one of the best guitar solo's I've ever heard from Mr. Gavik and lyrics sung in Swedish as a one-off; "A dying rose", one of two "epic" tracks on the album where the variation is quite superb, still it remains cohesive throughout the entire song; "Stained", the heaviest track on the album with haunting, melancholy and almost whispering vocals by Mr. Malmberg.

To sum things up; I would say that this is symphonic prog at it's best and I give it my warmest recommendations.