Heavenly
Coming From The Sky

It's albums like "Coming from the Sky" by Heavenly, released in 2001 by Noise Records, that are destroying power metal. A genre, linked to the melodic heavy movement, which emerged in the late '80s with Helloween and literally exploded in 1997 with the simultaneous emergence of an absolutely disproportionate number of all-the-same bands. In a sea of carbon-copy bands, something good can still be found if you search hard enough, but in general, the historic groups that created the aforementioned musical genre have been plundered, ridiculed, and ruthlessly exploited. Corpses, torn apart by a pack of hyenas hungry for success.

The early Helloween of "Walls Of Jericho" were raw, minimal, and delivered an extraordinary execution power, which they maintained even in the (at the time very original) melodic turn of "Keeper Of The Seven Keys". Gamma Ray, up until "Land Of The Free", were an excellent personal band ("Sigh No More", "Insanity & Genius"), capable of adding exciting rhythm changes to meticulously crafted melodic lines (almost never excessive). Blind Guardian, along with Rage, embodied the rough and violent side. Angra, with ethnic and prog influences ("Holy Land" docet), represented instead the more reflective and intriguing side of power metal.

These good bands were suddenly surrounded by groups that simplified their musical offerings to the bone, shamelessly commercializing them. With "Episode" and "Vision" (cf. Stratovarius: up to that point, an anonymous band barely noticed outside Finland), the double pedal became a rule, and with the arrival of Rhapsody and Nightwish, keyboards stuffed choruses and solos. Since 1997, an endless proliferation of albums with the usual pattern "verse-bridge-chorus-solo-verse-chorus" has decreed the death of a genre because there was no generational turnover. New blood is still tearing each other apart in a saturated market, giving birth to carbon-copy CDs of products at least 10-15 years old. The only hope is that the trend ends as soon as possible...

Let's talk about "Coming From The Sky": a symbol of the absolute triviality of the power metal proposed by most of the emerging bands.

The appealing cover, which winks at the teenager in the store, depicts an angel with ample curves. The angelic figure turns her pretty face to the side in an innocent and intriguing pose against a midnight blue background. Even the song titles are embarrassing and overused: Time Machine, Number One, Until I Die, Fairytale....

The music is as opportunistic as it gets. Heavenly, perfectly embodying the typical debut power band, risk absolutely nothing musically. Keyboards in abundance, solos in scales, grandiloquent stadium-like choruses combined with a falsetto voice trying unsuccessfully to imitate Michael Kiske. Bland riffs, mostly fast tempos in 12/8, anonymous bass, and repetitive song structures engage in exhausting crescendos meant to wear you down. The CD might initially (and very) superficially appeal for its sheer melodicity (enriched by some commendable guitar tapping and high notes), but after a couple of days, it significantly drops in appeal due to its near-total repetitiveness.

Yes, this CD embodies all the worst of current power metal. As already mentioned, it's works like this that minimize and ridicule a genre that, when it was born, had a reason to exist. The fact that it was Kai Hansen himself (Gamma Ray leader and former Helloween) sponsoring this work, makes my balls literally drop and doubt that power will rise again in the immediate future.

I won't give it a grade because 1 seems too much. It's a CD that tries, successfully, to kill a genre musically and has the shameless goal of cashing in while the iron is still hot. I want to clarify that I don't hold anything particularly against the French people in question: there are dozens of similar bands. Given the trend, and considering that there's no limit to the worst, I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years there will be some power metal band imitating Heavenly. In that case, I will eagerly review them again...