XANDRIA – “Sacrificium”
Sacrificium
Eagerly awaited is the new XANDRIA album “Sacrificium” with new singer Dianne van Giersbergen. After the surprising split from Manuela Kraller last year, the album with the new vocalist was released quite early. The impressive overlength opener and title track shows that XANDRIA are keeping their new found style from “Neverworld’s End” and keep doing symphonic metal. But the second song “Nightfall” for which the band also released a video clip shows that the release is set too early. Also the following songs do not seem to be advanced.
It is not because of Dianne van Giersbergen. Her voice fits perfectly. Well known from her Band EX LIBRIS, she has a beautiful soprano voice. It is because of the melodies. The orchestral parts and the band’s sound do not fit 100 percent. There is something constantly missing on the album. So come, the band’s sound is often too loud and it is difficult to even recognize the orchestra. Maybe XANDRIA wanted to release the album too quickly. Nearly every one of the twelve (!) songs seems to have missed the final revision.
Something is missing.
There are really good approaches. Especially the title track is very epic and lets the listener directly dive into XANDRIA’s sound. Another example is “Stardust” which is close to perfect in it’s actual version. The song is fast and bombastic and Dianne’s voice is brilliantly set centre stage. The band shows that they can do heavy metal with dark and heavy riffs.
For those who love ballads there is “The Undiscovered Land” with more than seven minutes runtime. Dianne once more shows her beautiful voice. The song’s development goes under one’s skin and there is a good spoken part. But still the final kick is missing, even if not as much as in the following songs.
Released too early.
With “Our Neverworld”, XANDRIA create a link to their former album and in fact it is one of the best songs on “Sacrificium” with beautiful melodies and a short heavier part. This song should be the standard for XANDRIA. The Germans finish the album with another ‘sweet’ ballad.
In summary, the album should have ripened. With an impressive sum of twelve tracks two years after the former release and with a new singer, who was announced about six months before, there was not enough time for an album to become perfect. There are some parts that show XANDRIA’s potential. Hopefully, they’ll keep Dianne van Giersbergen and release a really good album next time.
Tracklist:
01. Sacrificium
02. Nightfall
03. Dreamkeeper
04. Stardust
05. Undiscovered Land
06. Betrayer
07. Until The End
08. Come With Me
09. Little Red Relish
10. Our Neverworld
11. Temple Of Hate
12. Sweet Atonment