Blackmore's Night
Autumn Sky

The first creative impulse of the Blackmore's Night project had produced three albums of extraordinary quality; then a brief decline: in "Ghost Of A Rose" from 2003 and "The Village Lanterne" from 2006, the inspiration began to wane and the grandeur turned into verbosity, eclecticism weakened in numerous filler tracks, and the overall level of these lengthy and, in themselves, not very accessible albums visibly declined; Ritchie Blackmore's response is called "Secret Voyage," a shorter, energetic, rock-oriented album that initiates a second golden age for the magnificent couple of Renaissance Rock, followed by the excellent "Autumn Sky" in September 2010: the latest effort from Blackmore's Night is an album marked by renewal, in the vein of tradition and the unmistakable style wonderfully expressed by its predecessors.

Homogeneous and cohesive like never before in the history of Blackmore's Night, "Autumn Sky" forsakes eclecticism, steering towards a sound with a more distinctly pop-rock origin: the album boasts exciting moments, in its overall vision, it works wonderfully, the class is the usual, and, of course, there is the magnificent voice of Candice Night to complete everything. The ancient charm of the medieval times comes alive in the elegant and sinuous minstrel ballad "Health To The Company" and in the fluid rustic dance of "Sake Of The Song", is adorned with lively Middle Eastern nuances in "All The Fun Of The Fayre", darkens and shows us its most arcane side in the hypnotic and twilight "Darkness". Candice is always the protagonist, the mistress of the scene and frontwoman with magnificent expressive qualities: her voice is rich in grace, energy, and sensuality, capable of encompassing a multitude of registers, atmospheres, and shades, becoming the pivot around which the entire album revolves: enchanting and relaxing in the graceful acoustics of "Strawberry Girl", opens up in the chorus in a modern and convincing power ballad like "Believe In Me", shrouded in mystery and suffering in the ancient and evocative "Vagabond (Make A Princess Of Me)", makes us dream and transports us to another dimension in the cover of the Kinks masterpiece "Celluloid Heroes", and simply moves in the concluding "Barbara Allen", sweet and touching.

In addition to sweetness, "Autumn Sky" also offers a considerable dose of strength and grit: "Keeper Of The Flame" is a tough and fast neoclassical rock track, in which the ex-Man In Black can finally express himself in his most traditional guise as an electric guitarist, "Journeyman" stands out for an irresistible and modern groove, with an almost dance flavor, adorned with the refined arrangements of the B&N's school, and the opening "Highland", bold, resounding, and engaging, transmits an immense charge and energy, starting in the best way an album that continues Ritchie Blackmore's neoclassical adventure in the best way, overcoming the structural limits of the duo's early albums, which it perhaps shows to be less creative in an absolute sense but definitely more compact and accessible: inspired, classic yet timeless, cultured and traditional yet equally modern and catchy, with a flourishing and pronounced pop vein, this is "Autumn Sky," the eighth album of Blackmore's Night.