Five years have passed since Angel Nation released Aeon and the band led by vocalist Elina Siirala (Leaves Eyes) is back with their third album Antares, which is sure to please fans of melodic power metal.
A magnificent ballad orchestration can be heard by the guest musician Jonah Weingarten (Pyramaze). The striking artwork is created by Jobert Mello (Sabaton, Primal Fear) and the stellar job of mixing and mastering is done by Alexander Krull (Leaves’ Eyes, Atrocity) at Mastersound Studio.
Back in 2011 Elina Siirala, ventured away from her classical opera background and started Angel Nation under the name EnkeliNation (Finnish for Angel Nation). As the story goes, the actual origin of the band goes back even farther to a time when Elina moved to London in the UK for vocal studies and fell in love with rock and metal. When her studies ended she formed the band originally joined by guitarist Shadow (Empyreal Destroyer, Stand Aside) and the first years of the band were spent playing shows around London and enduring lineup changes. In 2012 the band released a three song ep and in 2014 a video for the song “Tears of Lust” which gained them notoriety in the scene. That year saw the release of the album Tears of Lust and the band headlining shows and getting a slot at the Bloodstock Festival. In 2015, the band played some shows with Leaves Eyes, wrote and recorded Aeon, and changed the name of the band to the English translation. The time with Leaves Eyes provided a bit of foreshadowing as Elina became their vocalist in 2016. For the third Angel Nation album, the band brought in guest musician Jonah Weingarten (Pyramaze) and had mastering and mixing done by Alexander Krull (Leaves Eyes, Atrocity) at Mastersound Studios with Jobert Mello providing some stunning artwork.
The album itself is named after the star Antares and is inspired by angels (Seraphim) and how their actions can somewhat cryptically be part of life stories.
Fittingly “Seraph” opens up the album and really sets the tone for what is to come. Keyboards and vocals play the most important roles in the overall sound of Angel Nation on this album although this opening track does have more guitar and drums present in the overall mix compared to other tracks. Much like my thoughts with Aeon, I would like to hear more guitar in the mix as there are some interesting guitar lines in many of the songs but they tend to get lost in the overall sound. Elina’s vocals are just as amazing 5 years later as they were on Aeon and are on Leaves Eyes releases. Seraph does give George “GT” Stergiou some room for a great guitar solo, which is an element one would expect in the genre.
“We Are Fire” opens up with a great, fast guitar riff that ends up being largely overwhelmed by the keyboards unfortunately as happens on many other tracks. The song itself is fast and again the drums, keyboards and vocals become the most important elements. There is a good mix in the vocal range and layered vocals on the track again highlighting Elina’s talent.
“End of Innocence” opens up with some mournful guitar that fades out leaving Elina to provide an almost acapella experience. Her overall tone is deeper and darker through much of the song and this is one of the first tracks on the album that may remind listeners of Amy Lee (Evanescence).
“Life is War” and “Crucify Me” both have that power metal feeling to them, while “Face to Face with the Merciless” heads in a completely different direction bringing up memories of late 80’s hair metal in a way that just doesn’t work very well and ends up being my least favorite track on the album. Thankfully, “Where’s the Time” has the band returning more to the sound of the previous tracks and “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” continues in a similar vein, but at a much faster pace, and even conjures up some Rainbow or Perfect Strangers-era Deep Purple with some of the guitar riffs.
“Way Back Home” is not only the quietest of the songs on the album with primarily just piano accompanying Elina but is also arguably the song with the strongest emotional content and would serve to erase any doubt about the depth of Elina’s vocal abilities. Here again, I have a bit of a quibble with the keyboards being too intrusive. A piano and vocal version of this track would be utterly amazing. For what it’s worth, I generally lean toward the heaviest and roughest tracks as my favorites on albums but this song is by far my favorite on this album. Simply stunning.
“Where the Future Lies” closes out the album strongly and has the band going back to the power metal found on the other tracks. Interestingly, to me this song also seems to be one that trades the keyboard dominated sound for more of a guitar dominated sound and is also one of the few where the bass guitar contributes in a significant way. Great song to close the album.
Much like I said about their previous album Aeon, Antares is one of those albums filled with great songs that are “metal enough for metal fans but have a broader overall appeal due to the strength of the songwriting, epic, symphonic nature of the songs and the awe-inspiring vocals.” On Antares, I do feel the band may have missed the mark a bit, at least for me, in the sometimes dominant keyboards that overshadow the guitars, but perhaps the idea is to provide some distance from Elina’s work in Leaves Eyes. Regardless, the result is an obviously strong release worth a listen.
Rating: 8/10
Written by John Jackson
Tracklist
- Seraph
- We Are Fire
- End of Innocence
- Life is a War
- Crucify Me
- Face to Face with the Merciless
- Where’s the Time
- Out of Sight, Out of Mind
- Way Back Home
- Where the Future Lies
Band Members
Elina Siirala -Vocals&keys
Julia B Cadau – Bass
Lucas Williamson – Drums
George GT Stergiou – Guitar
Release Date: April 8th. 2022
2017: “Aeon” (review)
2022: “Antares”
Record Label: Inner Wound Records, 2022
Video for ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Video for ‘Seraph’
