Fairyland - Score to a New Beginning

01 Opening Credits
02 Across The Endless Sea Part II
03 Assault On The Shores
04 Master Of The Waves
05 A Soldier's Letter
06 Godsent
07 At the Gates Of Morken
08 Rise Of The Giants
09 Score to a New Beginning
10 End Credits
The FAIRYLAND trilogy is complete! 'Score to a New Beginning' is the latest masterpiece stemming from the musical genius of Philippe Giordana, and once again offers impressive and imposing Symphonic Metal. Virtuous guitar leads and symphonic keyboard melodies comprise the monumental soundtrack for the final saga of the fantasy realm Osyhria. This new chapter is skillfully and diversely embellished by an illustrious round of guest vocalists including Georg Neuhauser of Serenity. In this way, melodic vocal lines meet sonorous choruses to breathe credible life into the characters of Osyhria. A true milestone for fans of Blind Guardian and Rhapsody of Fire and an undisputed cause for celebration.

After many name changes, previously Fantasia and Fantasy the band now continues as Fantasy. The band finds it roots in France. The intro of the cd, reminds me of that Disney music movie Fantasia. The band plays symphonic power metal, something that is mostly not my cup of tea. Something that strikes me is that there is no band. Fairyland is Philippe Giordana, former member and founder of the band. After many line up changes in the band they signed with Napalm Records in 2006. After a tour for this album the band members parted ways. Philippe Giordana could find new musicians but decided to work on his own on new material.

To create the CD he found some artist who contributed to this album to create the sound of 「Score to a New Beginning」. Due to these contributions the album has that symphonic sound as you can hear orchestras programmed but also guitar leads and symphonic keyboard melodies, and the needed power. Two of the participating artist are Marco Sandron and Fabio d'Amore, from Italian prog/power band Pathosray. Marco will have the lead role as singer, and would use is voice for the more opera like parts. A few tracks remind me of the band Serenity, which is not weird as the singer Georg Neuhauser takes care of the additional vocals on for example 「Across the Endless Sea Part II」, 「A Soldier's Letter」 and the title track 「Score to a New Beginning」. When completed this album Philippe gathered quite an amount of participating musicians.

A soldiers letter starts off with a nice piano intro and will be joined by a choir that is more present on this CD, mostly during the choruses. I have to say that I like A soldiers Letter, because it is more a balad and simply just a nice track. The tracks of the album tell about the last days of the Osyrhian wars. Overall the album does not sound that original, but that is due to the power metal genre I guess or the fact that I am not a big lover of this style. However some of the tracks have nice and interesting parts that kept me listening.