Lunatica - New Shores (2009)

I’ve been following this Swiss band since their 2001 debut Atlantis, and while they have been taking almost 3 years in between releases, they are worth the wait. This band’s latest album is a new stepping stone in their musical evolution.

New Shores marks the bands entrance into more commercial sound since most of the songs here are typical power metal ballads, while they are not bad musically they are just something that I would not imagine Lunatica doing in 2001.

The album feels like it consists of two EP’s together, while the first six songs sound like a continuation of their 2006 album, the last 5 songs capture clear departure form this sound. Farewell my Love marks the beginning of the power ballads section, while the music is great, the use of clean male vocals make this song very different from the first six songs.

The next song sounds like any rock pop song that I could listen in the radio, so no comments on this one. The rest of the tracks have a more power metal feel to them, the only thing that reminds me that the band I’m listening to is Lunatica is Andrea’s vocals, otherwise I could be listening to any power metal band.

While this release is very well produced and recorded, I have to say that I did not expect this band to take this direction. Lunatica is a good band and with this album they can potentially reach main stream success like many other bands that are ‘selling out’ in my opinion. So listen to this album being warned that it will be a hard thing to listen to (especially the last songs), and you might be shocked.

Country: Switzerland