REALITY

This may be my first - or second - time to review a (Prog) METAL artist! That's not a genre I generally listen to. Wingdom is a Finnish band that plays melodic metal with plenty of keyboards. The songwriter is the keys player Mikko Harkin. Well, actually, this is a pretty good album, even I can listen to it and get something of it without a headache. I'm glad I took this step outside my comfort zone (but hey, last summer I was in a concert of SONATA ARCTICA! I guess these two bands are more or less similar). Now I understand much better why so many people enjoy metal music. The emotion and energy of it. This is of course from the easiest side of metal, no death growls, thick noise walls, crazy speed or other extreme metal specialities around. At the same time I must point out that it's not metal at its most progressive either, far from it. The songs are mostly in 4-5 minute length, though there's one 12-minute track too.

Vocals of Sami Asp are tight and strong, typical for the genre. I suppose this music can be compared to the commercial heavy rock that I heard in my youth in the 80's, bands like Europe, but happily Wingdom is not that commercial. The songs are quite accessible but not sounding like wannabe-chart hits. Some of the lyrics deal with themes like loneliness and the importance of love, or a wish to have some guiding light in this troubled world. They're OK, if a little clichéd.

The rhythm section is suitably strong without being too loud, and also the roar of metal guitar is kept at balance. The keyboards bring nice brightness to the overall sound. There's no notable soloing, which doubtlessly would have improved the music. But if my little review has any credibility, I say this is a very suitable place to get into metal.