WUTHERING HEIGHTS

WUTHERING HEIGHTS was and still is the baby of guitarist, vocalist, bassist, keyboardist and sole songwriter Erik Ravn. Formed in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1999, this Danish band has featured a fair number of Swedish musicians over its two decade plus career with only Ravn remaining from the early lineups. Starting out as Angelica in 1989 and then changed to Minas Tirith, Ravn shifted gears and crafted a unique mix of power metal, progressive metal and folk music which at the time was fairly unique.

Fast forward through the 90s and by 1999, Ravn adopted the name WUTHERING HEIGHTS which despite making you think of the famous Kate Bush song about the English 19th century novel by Emily Brontë, in fact doesn't portend Ravn's infatuation with the novel or subject matter. In fact, WUTHERING HEIGHTS has always been fairly eclectic not only in the musical sense but in the lyric department as well with references to everything from Tolkien fantasy inspired worlds to simple good old-fashioned personal references.

WITHIN is the debut album which emerged the same year the band was officially formed and featured the lineup of Swedish singer Kristian Andrén as lead vocalist, bassist Kasper Gram, drummer Morten Nadgaard, keyboardist Rune Brink and Erik Ravn on guitars. With an album cover resembling something out of the Symphony X playbook, WITHIN does indeed deliver a crafty mix of progressively infused power metal that also exhibited a fair number of technical workouts as well as local Scandinavian folk flavors.

While considered a pioneer in the Scandinavian power metal scene for adopting folk music and more progressive compositions, other bands would soon follow with Sweden's Falconer and the Danish Manticora emerging around the same time. The band also featured similarities with Germany's Blind Guardian in how it deftly mixed classic 80s heavy metal and speed metal with the more modern sounds of power metal all the while adopting aspects of progressive rock with the extra features of folk. As with most power metal, WUTHERING HEIGHTS was primarily concerned with strong melodic hooks and clean powerful vocals but occasional engaged in some more extreme growly vocals.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS would become one of the biggest names in progressive power metal all throughout the first decade of the new millennium but on WITHIN, the band was still trying to perfect its formula into a seamless product that would really reach its full firing power until 2004's "Far From The Maddening Crowd" however WUTHERING HEIGHTS even by today's standards emerged as a unique sounding band that hit the ground running. The compositions are fortified with strong powerful melodic hooks and the instrumentation is distinct in how the various styles of metal switch things up to make a powerful debut.

Unfortunately WITHIN seems a bit clunky as well as the stylistic approach doesn't seem quite accomplished and i'm also not the hugest fan original singer Kristian Andren's vocal style. Of course this is a personal thing but it is detracting enough for me that i rarely visit these early albums but in the end WITHIN is a very well constructed album for the most part with a unique stylistic approach that the band would build upon to craft the more accomplished albums to come. Add to the positives, the production is really good and the band along with Royal Hunt kept Denmark relevant in the metal world after King Diamond, Merciful Fate and Artillery had put Denmark on the metal map.

3.5 rounded down

Despite named for Englishwoman Emily Bronte's novel and performing Celtic- infused heroic power metal, Wuthering Heights hail from Denmark. Literary name speaks to their ambition. Not your Blind Guardian. Although there is a song about hobbits. Folk sounds are prominent in this release, probably more so than on their other albums. When its folk, it is as rollicking, or lamenting or let's-pack-our backpacks-and-go as can be. And when guitars harmonize, it brings fond memories of Iron Maiden (like at the end of Road goes forever on). But when it's the power metal side of the equation, the typical double drumming and riffs show why all this Teutonic power metal is no Iron Maiden.

It baffles me why there are such different ratings for Wuthering Heights, since all their albums, except for the very early ones, are similar in quality, moderate-to-good. This Danish band play power metal with progressive touches and a very prominent Celtic folk influence. On this album the folk instrumentation (but not the influence) has been reduced somewhat, but instead its packed in a more "modern", New Era nautical package. But it's not our typical Iron Maiden-clone. Instead of wailing, the vocals are gruff. In fact, I picture an unwashed Viking every time I hear their vocalist, ha-ha. And equally gruff guitars sound not as much as riding-in-the-air- with-dragons, but rather as burning wildfire. The closing song, Lost at Sea, is a powerful 16-minute epic, stands its ground against Iron Maiden's Rime of Ancient Mariner as far as historical power metal epics go.

Hailing from Denmark, Wuthering Heights has been releasing their brand of prog metal since 1999. Salt is their fifth album, and although little new ground seems to be broken, and they wear their influences on their sleeves, I just can't help but like this album. Salt is not so much a concept album with a unified story, but a collection of songs around the common themes of the ocean and sea-faring pirates.

"Desperate Poet" is a strong opening track ? lots of lyrics, powerful vocals and frenetic tempos all served up with gusto and passion lets the listener know exactly what's in store for the rest of the album.

"Mad Sailor" has a weird sort of Scottish sea-shanty flavor. Hard to take too seriously with its sing-along choruses?yet it's all in the nature of the concept. "Last Tribe" and "Tears" are more mid-tempo rockers. Things get a little more interesting with "Weather the Storm" which features an atmospheric opening reminiscent of Trans-Siberian Orchestra. "The Field" and "Water of Life" continue with the maritime themes; the latter being the acoustic ballad of the album.

The final track, "Lost at Sea", is where the band pull out all the stops. This sixteen-minute epic seems to have just about everything. Combining the best of Gamma Ray, Rhapsody of Fire, Crimson Glory, Savatage and Iron Maiden, Wuthering Heights combines everything into one epic story-song that effortlessly goes from up-tempo rock to atmospheric acoustic interludes and back again.

As I said at the outset, the band wears their influences on their sleeves, yet they breathe so much life into their material that one can't help but be carried along. If you're a fan of any of the bands I've mentioned in this review, then Wuthering Heights is for you!

I was heavily into prog metal of the softer kind at the time of this album´s release. Being from Denmark myself, a country not known for making much good music, I was thrilled to find that a danish band had made a progressive metal album. There is just one thing with this album though. It has folk leanings, and I´m not too happy with folk.

This is in fact more of a power metal album in my ears than a prog one. The lyrical themes underline this, being in the fantasy style. There is not much of interest for me here, as most of the songs are not that well composed, and the sound quality is just awful. One of the worst productions I have ever heard.

Main songwriter and band leader Erik Ravn has listened to a lot of Yngwie Malmsteen and it shines through in his guitarplaying. It´s so clearly a Fender he plays throughout the album.

As mentioned above the songs are not that well composed, but does have a lot of different parts and riffs, and therefore qualifying for prog archives. I have almost had this album for 10 years and only one song stand out from the rest: "To Great Thy Gift". This song defies bad sound quality and delivers the best chorus I have ever heard in a power metal song, which is quite the achivement. If you ever get the chance to hear this album, go straight for "To Great Thy Gift" and listen to that beautiful chorus. I sometimes take out this album just to listen to this chorus.

I´ll give this album 2 stars, only because of the beautiful chorus in "To Great Thy Gift". This might even be too much because frankly the rest of the album is only worth 1 star. I haven´t listened to the next albums from the band, but I´ve read that they should be much better.

This is the final installment of the trilogy about a time traveller and his wanderings through different lands. This band is from Denmark which is hard to believe when you listen to the music. They sound like they are from the UK and there is a Celtic feel to a lot of their songs. The music itself is very epic sounding Power Metal. I must confess i'm not a fan of this genre having tried to get into a few of BLIND GUARDIAN's cds a couple of years ago and coming away unimpressed for the most part.This has a lot of variety in it though, as well as some bagpipes, banjo, flute and violin that you won't often find in this genre. There are dual vocals at times, with the main singer having a DIO feel to his vocals.

The album opens with "Gather Ye Wild" as the sound of bagpipes and wind blowing introduces our subject. Nice guitar solo in this one as well as a blistering solo on the next tune "The Road Goes Ever On". There is a galloping rhythm and double bass drumming on the next song "Longing For The Woods Part 1 The Wild Children"."Highland Winds' is a really good song that features more bagpipes but it's the guitar solos that amaze me. "Longing For The Woods Part 2 The Ring Of Fire" has some double bass drumming with the guitar grinding it out, then bass, then keys, then guitar which is kind of cool. The melody 4 minutes in sounds like it doesn't belong, but it changes quickly as an all out assault follows.

Probably my favourite song is "The Bollard" with acoustic guitar opening the song before the violin comes in. Reserved vocals follow and we also are treated to some flute. It's the imagery though that the song brings to mind that makes this a must hear. Check out the lyrics. The next song has one of the best titles iv'e ever seen "Bad Hobbits Die Hard". Haha. This one is full speed ahead with a flury of keys and some great guitar. They change tempos so smoothly ! "Land Of Olden Glory" opens with reserved vocals but turns into a rocker with some scathing guitar solos. The pace slows down for the final 2 songs, the last being a bonus track with some intricte acoustic guitar melodies.

I have to give these guys credit for coming up with an album I like from a genre I really don't like a whole lot. I can easily recommend this to any Power Metal fans out there, as well as to Metal fans in general. 3.5 stars.

Sorry, it's not a book review nor a movie review. It's a music review about a Danish band named Wuthering Heights's second album and a damned good one at that.

Wuthering Heights caught me by surprise. I buy a lot of albums by word of mouth, good reviews, gut feeling and generally wishful thinking. I try to get a sample of something I'm interested in first but when you're dealing with underground and esoteric music you can't always get a sample. Besides, I have gotten samples that I didn't like only to find out years later that I loved that band, so I buy a lot of music on instinct. True I get plenty of music I don't really care for or that I'm indifferent to but I also get quite a lot that I'm crazy about and for me that's what it's about.

Wuthering Heights is one of those bands I bought cold. I had read good reviews but I wasn't impressed by the name nor the album cover, so I wasn't expecting much. Turns out To Travel For Evermore was one of those pleasant surprises and one of the better Progressive Metal releases I've gotten in a while. To Travel For Evermore is the middle album of a concept album trilogy, the initial album being Within (1999) and the finale being Far From the Maddening Crowd released just this year. It is ostensibly a story about a time traveler traveling to various times of humanity but to be honest it is the music not the story that interests me.

Song/Track List 1 Behind Tearstained Ice - Ravn 2:15 ***** 2 The Nevershining Stones - Ravn 6:25 ***** 3 Dancer in the Light Ravn - 5:31 **** 4 Lost Realms Ravn - 8:28 **** 5 Battle of the Seasons - Brink, Ravn, Saandvig 8:48 ****1/2 6 A Sinner's Confession: Dawn/The Child in the Sea/The Man in the Moon/Dusk - Ravn, Saandvig 9:37 ***** 7 See Tomorrow Shine - Ravn 5:13 ****1/2 8 Through Within to Beyond - Ravn 6:52 ****1/2 9 River Oblivion - Ravn 3:54 *****

The Players Eric Ravn - Guitars, Bass, and Keyboards Rune S. Brink - Keyboards Henrik Flyman - Guitars Morten Sorensen - Drums Kristian "Krille" Andren - Lead Vocals Special Guest: Lorenzo Deho: Bass

I would classify To Travel For Evermore as Progressive Metal but in truth it sometimes has an Epic, even grandiose feel to it, in fact portions of the songs are played in a power metal flow. As Epic Power albums often do, To Travel For Evermore opens with an instrumental intro track, "Behind Tearstained Ice". The piece has a Medieval style melody to it, with a flute and violin like keyboard lead and choir backing. In fact the whole album uses choir backing (whether an actual choir or backing band members). Next is "The Nevershining Stones" a melodic, progressive epic with great twin-leads, hard driven riffsl, a nifty chorus, a great melodic piano centerpart and Krille's awesome vocals. Lead singer Kristian "Krille" Andren (ex Tad Morose) shows that his name is in the same league as the other big names in the genre. The next track, "Dancer in the Light", meanders a bit before hitting its refrain, taking it's time to develop the potential.

We then have three long tracks in a row. Despite it's folk sounding beginning, the more progressive, bluesy "Lost Realms" follows, a slow to mid-tempo piece clocks in at eight and a half minutes and offers brooding verses, pastoral instrumental passages, a fabulous bridge, and a serenely harmonic chorus reminiscent of Shadow Gallery. As advertised, this lengthy track is followed by another, a nine minute instrumental "Battle of the Seasons". An energetic progressive composition, that doesn't just rely on flash and fast playing, but controls the effort to paint a musical landscape with broad strokes and varied colors.

The third and longest of the three is also the masterpiece, a multi-part epic, and epic is the right word, "A Sinner's Confession" which begins with the piece de resistance, "Dawn" and blasts its way through nine-plus minutes varied speedy metal, ending with "Dusk." This darkly cynical piece traces a life from it's inauspicious beginning to it's doom, metaphorically for a the larger premise, the rise and fall of humanity. All the varying textures heard elsewhere on the album are elements here, from the driving metal to the folky interludes.

A straight Powermetal number "See Tomorrow Shine", may not be the most experimental song, but it adds to the diversity of the album while presenting a level of charm that adds greatly to the feeling of the album. The penultimate song, "Through Within to Beyond", is a brooding, galloping, highly varied, stop and start, mid-tempo number. A nice track, but probably overshadowed by the many great songs on the album. "River Oblivion" closes things down, similar to the intro, as kind of a dreamy, piece that fades the disc out with some acoustic guitar, orchestral effects. An apt ending to an album, an inverse intro if you will.

CONCLUSION

This is one of those albums that you could be totally ignoring and it just won't let you. You wind up looking up more and more and saying to yourself, wow, that's really good. Do you know someone, anyone that always manages to say the right thing? Or a writer who manages to tell a story in a perfect unquestioned way? Or a decorator who manages to pick out the perfect accessories? That's what this band reminds me of. Their highly melodic music manages to follow each meody with a complementing melody, each note with a complimenting note!

If you like your progressive metal mixed up with several styles of music, with certain, symphonic / majestic style, injected with folk elements along the way, you won't be disappointed with Wuthering Heights. While people are complaining about uninteresting bands that release similar music with each disc, and are looking for something different, Wuthering Heights is a good place to find some unique, powerful, progressive metal.

SIMILAR BANDS

Dream Theater, Royal Hunt, Adagio, Shadow Gallery, Kamelot, Wonderland, Arena