By Jonny Bakes
For most people, Nightwish seem to be the benchmark by which all symphonic metal is measured. While some may argue with this approach, and I agree that there are a lot of fantastic symphonic metal bands of there who sound nothing like Nightwish, it’s hard to think of many (if any) other symphonic metal bands who have sold out an arena show at Wembley (yes, I know Within Temptation and Delain came close, but there were two of them so it’s not quite the same!)…. But this leads us into a difficult situation, is another band good because they sound a lot like Nightwish? Or is being too similar to Nightwish a real drawback in the symphonic metal world? I’ll leave you to form your own opinion about that one, in the meantime let’s look at this new offering to the altar of symphonic metal.
Up steps Glasya, a relatively new symphonic metal band and the brainchild of Hugo Estates who’s ultimate desire was to combine metal with full orchestral arrangements (sound familiar?). So, he set about scouring his native Portugal to find the right members to fulfill his vision. After finding himself a drummer in Bruno Ramos (My Deception) and filling the synthesizer-shaped hole with Davin Von Dave (Urban Tales, Shadowsphere) he set off to find himself a vocalist, and where better to find a symphonic metal vocalist than a Nightwish tribute band (the intro makes far more sense now, right?), specifically the Portuguese Nightwish tribute act Nightdream whose vocalist Eduarda Soeiro quickly became the voice and face of Glasya with her operatic vocals and classical influences.
That’s enough about the band though, let’s take a look at their debut full length album ‘Heaven’s Demise’ which follows the release of the title track back in January 2018 which created a significant amount of buzz about this new player on the symphonic metal scene, but is the album worth the 18 month wait? Let’s see…
First impressions? There is a very heavy Nightwish influence! I mean, that’s no surprise given the origins of the band, and is by no means a bad thing (if you like Nightwish that is). I think it’s safe to say that Hugo has achieved the goal that he set out to do, this album has very successfully blended orchestral elements with metal which has resulted in a very bombastic sound. Eduarda has a very impressive vocal style which I would argue emulates the operatic style of Tarja Turenen which is well balanced by the harsher tones of the male vocals. Throughout the album you can tell that some of the band members have come from prog metal backgrounds as there are some delightfully technical instrumentals thrown in for good measure.
The title track ‘Heaven’s Demise’ kicks off in a way that would be very familiar to Nightwish fans. It’s quite fast paced, energetic and makes liberal use of choral samples not unlike the ‘Imaginaerum’ era of Nightwish. It’s easy to see why this track caused such a stir when it was released back 18 months ago! We even have a breakdown accompanied by a soft-spoken word piece before a pretty impressive guitar solo comes out of nowhere!
My favourite song on this album has to be ‘Coronation Of A Beggar’. It has a real passionate feel to it, and while slower and more sombre than done of the other songs on this album it is no less powerful. There’s some fantastic pieces of narration in this song from one of the guest male vocalists that were drafted in to make this album that bit more special.
The final track, ‘A Thought of You’ opens with a moving piano solo before the drums and synth combine with the piano to give some real guts to the song. This purely instrumental track works as a great closer for the album and feels almost like it should be accompanied by some closing credits. It’s a great way to end what has been somewhat of a musical journey to get to this point.
I’m very impressed with this album as a while and I would definitely say that is great example of symphonic metal. Glasya have certainly emulated that epic sound that makes Nightwish so successful. The bad news is, if you don’t like Nightwish, you’re probably not going to like this, but if you do then this should make it into your collection!
- ‘Heaven’s Demise’ is released on Friday (12 July). You can get your copy HERE.
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