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Lunatica is a symphonic metal band originating from Suhr, Switzerland that began in the winter of 1998 with Alex Seiberl and Sandro D'Incau. For about three years, the band had a troublesome time finding a lead singer until Andrea Datwyler joined the band in 2000. In 2001, their debut album Atlantis showcased Andrea's beautiful voice along with the symphonic metal of used in the band's music. They soon recieved more members into the band and their next two albums were Fables & Dreams and The Edge of Infinity. Despite not recieving much praise and support here on the Western side of the world such as other bands including Lacuna Coil and even Within Temptation, Lunatica has recieved a powerful cult following for their supportive and positve messages mixed in with their beautiful lyrics and melodies.
I will admit that I haven't listened to Lunatica until this year with thier newest album titled New Shores. I then went back to their older albums and they are awesome. If you like symphonic metal, which was actually more presently brought to the frontlines of music preferences by Evanescence, then you'll love this band. Also, a lot of their songs are very positive message based and I really admire that especially since Lunatica are very engrained with LOA and positive thinking. A lot of my ideals and views are presented quite well in their songs and I am so thankful I was able to discover this band. Also New Shores is their first album published by Napalm Records since the last three albums were by Frontier.
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Review
The album New Shores is mostly about discovery of all kinds thus why the title of the album. Every song in this album is a form of discovery in some way or fashion. I really like this theme because true discovery is driven by passion and understanding and a lot of those qualities are found in things I put a lot of high-emphasis in such as personal responsibility and universal understanding. I think what people will notice the most about the singers in this album is their lyrical prose when the songs are performed. There is really no literal rhyme or rhythm when Andrea sings the lyrics but they are still beautiful. Imagine how you listen to poems and how it rhymes and that is the method it goes. Well there are some in the songs but most of the time, it is more of a story being told from a noveletta than a poem. I really have a lot of respect for Lunatica for pulling this off because poetry is considered to be emotion in written form that anyone can relate to thus why almost all musical artists will use poetry in the flow of their music or they will write their music in the flow of poetry. Don't believe me, listen to rap/urban/hip hop music and you'll see a huge influence of poetry in its music. Being able to write a song and perform it in the form of singing a story instead of reciting poetry is easy but very hard to relate to other people. I believe this band has done a great job relating the story-telling aspect into music. Now you may not have heard of them but they have survived unlike a lot of other bands before who tried this.
Now that I got that part analyzed for you, let's go to the actual songs. The album is divided into two forms of emotions when it comes to the music. There is your aggressive songs and your more relaxed songs. Despite what you choose to listen to first, I will admit on a personal preference that I loved both forms. The aggressive songs touched the side of me that sees progress while the relaxed songs touched the emotions catering most to my soul. So all in all, it's a very good diversity within the album.
The two aggressive songs that I'll talk about are the main song New Shores and The Incredibles. New Shores is about discovery but discovery on all levels of the human mind besides physical discovery. The greatest discovery anyone can ever discover for themselves is the imagination of their minds and this is what New Shores is mostly about. There are many things in our world that go beyond irrationality to dreaming, wonder, awe, amazement, and all of the other feelings lacking with most people who are overly rational. In my honest opinion, I believe the people with the greatest imaginations have a more advanced understanding of this world than most. The other song The Incredibles is a very powerful song directed towards our people today or should I just say "mankind". This song talks about how we, mankind, will avoid any problems we see fit as going against our comfort zone. What Lunatica is singing in my opinion is they want mankind to give later generations the chance to find a solution to our problems today but how can that be if we load our future generations with the riddle and problems we have today into them? So the song is about giving our future generations a chance to fix our mistakes by not weighing them down with our problems. The two problems that Lunatica brought up however were Global Warming and pollution. I think Patrick and some other people might have a say with that. By the way, The Incredibles is my second-favorite song in the album.
The two emotional songs I want to talk about are Two Dreamers and Heart of a Lion. In Two Dreamers, it is about two people, doesn't say if they are friends, lovers, whatever. They are just two people but one means a lot to the other for what the other has shown them through the power of dreaming. This is a straight-up Law of Attraction song from how I see it and I love that. The power of dreaming is so strong if you truly understand that dreams are the beginning of anything that you see. Everything you see in this world, someone or something dreamed of it before it became a reality. This shows me that the dreaming is unlimited but dreaming is also a method that creates something you should live out everyday. Finally is my personal favorite song Heart of Lion. I thought about Amanda Stevens from The Superhuman Experiment when I heard this song for the first time and I even sent a link to her. I am so happy she loves it. Anyways, this is a song about a girl who was defeated and hurt by a man in her past but she has taken the personal responsibility of truly loving herself to become strong and well again. Even in the lyrics, it says she is a fighter and burns brighter with a heart of a lion. This song also shows that the steps for true happiness may be little steps at a time but they are still progress. I love this because I would love to be with a girl like this who understands what a bad relationship is and has been in one but doesn't justify its existence. You see many people, girls and guys, justify bad relationships and when it doesn't go well they become bitter and angry. This girl in the song is moving forward and letting go of the pain by following and believing in her dreams and having strong faith. I am in true awe of that.
All in all, this is one of the best albums I have listened to this year. Not to mention, this is a rarity album for me as in every song I actually like to the highest degree on this album. Not many bands have pulled off that feat. Angel Y Khriz (Showtime), Sevendust (Alpha), Trapt (Only Through the Pain), T-Pain (THR33 RINGZ), and Britney Spears (Circus) are the only artists to have been able to accomplish this feat with me. I give a lot of respect to this band and hope they get the recognition they honestly deserve but personally I am thinking they are more for the love instead of the fame...which makes me respect them even more.
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