Flagship
Maiden Voyage

Christian Rivel and C.J. Grimmark are an inexhaustible source of ideas: starting from Narnia, moving through Audiovision and again with Wisdom Call, these two musicians have carved out over the years a place of honor within the power metal scene, producing albums that, although not particularly original, always manage to convince the listener thanks to melodies that are easy but never too predictable.

The 2002 is, for these two artists, aided for the occasion by Kristofer Eng on bass, Linus Kase on keyboards, and Mick Nord on drums, a return to progressive origins, which had been abandoned over the years in favor of a more aggressive metal, and thus, under the name Flagship, "Maiden Voyage" is born, an album clearly inspired by the progressive rock of the '70s, in which influences deriving from the AOR so dear to groups like Journey, Styx, and to a lesser extent Toto, can also be seen.

The more than seven minutes opening of "Heart Is The Centre" demonstrates what has been said so far, as the melodies are indeed extremely refined, rich with orchestrations, with elegant arrangements and well-studied and articulated music. The AOR base can be found in this case especially in the piano notes of the first part, which bring to mind the Journey of "Escape", then becoming first a true progressive anthem (My God, it feels like listening to an album that is over 30 years old but has aged exceptionally well), not to mention the choruses in the central chorus that bring to mind the more theatrical works of Queen. After the choral phase ends, it returns to typically progressive territories, with a nice long guitar solo that is decisively well structured, leading us towards the end of the piece.

From this point onwards, there is a continuous alternation of the most diverse musical influences, and thus in "You Are", in addition to the progressive and AOR, a certain decidedly melodic and pleasant pop-rock makes its appearance, or again "Windy City" capable of enchanting with its calm and sunny pace.

Continuing to describe further would seem decidedly unnecessary to me, after all the rest of the tracks move more or less along the same coordinates (except for the Narnia cover of "Ground Zero" closer to progressive metal), what I want to emphasize instead is the ability with which these kind gentlemen manage to make us relive magical atmospheres that seemed lost in a sea of banality and cold and sterile acts of self-indulgence, proving themselves always, or almost, up to a task not exactly easy, but decidedly well achieved.