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Rating: If the quality of Xandria's releases were directly proportional to the delicate and fragile beauty typical of pianists like Lisa Middelhauve (singer and keyboardist of the band), today we would find ourselves with three masterpieces in our hands. Instead, the band's sonic exploration has always lingered, as if scared, where it needed to be daring, to go beyond the already well-tested and established frameworks set by someone else.
Leaving aside the commendable rock spontaneity of the debut album "Kill the Sun" (2003) and nullifying the limited yet still appreciable gothic movements of the successor "Ravenheart" (2004), the German quintet ventured in 2005 toward more metallic territories that aimed to recycle the orchestral material of Nightwish's "Once" (thanks to collaboration with the German Film Orchestra of Berlin), adding to this prepackaged package, named "India," hints of Celtic folk, making the listening of the twelve tracks quite hostile even for those trying hard to find some notable spark within derivative works like this. The hostility is not linked to some intricate musical construction, but to a clear and irritating lack of personality and ideas and several episodes of dubious aesthetic taste.
Right from the opening track, which shares the album's title, it becomes apparent how the band has squandered and buried the most ephemeral semblance of originality that seemed to animate it up to the times of "Kill the Sun." Even the elegance in copying that characterized them in "Ravenheart" has decided to go on vacation; now the band is almost no longer capable of playing anything other than pathetic mimicries, as demonstrated by the song in question, which strives unsuccessfully to give an epic and choral aspect to Xandria's music by combining Lisa's vocal virtuosity (excellent, but only when she doesn't try to embrace too high notes) with cinematic orchestrations and sharp guitars (not to mention a baseless solo towards the end of the distressing three minutes and twenty seconds). The risk of nausea is always present.
Anyone wishing to venture into this sort of concept, a daring metaphor for a journey through one's existence (hence the title, an evident tribute to Christopher Columbus's voyage) is therefore advised to arm themselves with a bag, also because Drakkar Records didn't even spare us the effort of having to procure it, when there was the possibility of including it in a nice cardboard digipack. If you have a weak stomach, I suggest you forgo listening, because the discomfort might overwhelm you any moment, as in "Now and Forever," which combines disco-pop keyboards with sunny choirs reminiscent of a well-known Enya song and guitars borrowed from Nightwish. No signs of improvement with the subsequent "In Love with the Darkness," a powerful demonstration of how to mold the most banal lyrical and musical clichés of a genre into a single song. "Fight Me" attempts to blend electronic samples with epic choirs, oriental melodies, and melodic refrains, tarnishing everything with the syncopated guitar rhythms overused by Evanescence. Needless to say, the elegance of Amy Lee's band is light-years away from this song. So many laughs when I hear poor Lisa trying to appear sensual in "Black & Silver" and engaging in a section that would like to offer intimate and sweet emotions of Celtic flavor in "Like a Rose on the Grave of Love," which, with its bagpipes, would be the perfect soundtrack for an Osella robiola commercial. If the bottom had been hit for quite some time, now it's starting to scrape and drill the subsoil, and the patience of the listeners too!
With "Widescreen" we begin to better understand what weapon the band has decided to focus on: the refrains, which in every single episode seek easy melodies (thus opposing the roughness of the guitars), yet result in being predictable, repetitive, and uninspiring. By the eighth track, Lisa, Marco, Philip, Nils, and Gerit face an existential question: "Which band have we not plagiarized yet? Of course, Within Temptation!". Here is "The End of Every Story". Only now do I realize how despicable it is that classical musicians and entire orchestras dare to lend their art to such atrocities, motivated purely by economic reasons. And I still can't understand how the group's performance at the latest edition of the Wave Gothic Treffen in Leipzig, always characterized by a niche and quite uncompromising audience, received wide approval. However, from the following track, entitled "Who We Are", the plagiarism attempts are momentarily shelved, and amid pop flirtations and romantic piano notes (reminiscent of the previous album), Xandria even manages to reach adequacy. And to describe "Dancer" I have to resort to adjectives like intense, dramatic, and moving. Although originality in this field is practically an unknown concept, finding a beautiful ballad like this one is always pleasant, and it's also true that not everyone can compose valid ones. Listening to this beautiful song with highly respectable symphonic peaks feels like being in the presence of another band. Mixing cues from both previous songs, the band still manages to surprise with "Winterhearted," also filled with never banal melodies and equipped with a finally catchy refrain as well as never bombastic guitar parts and a short but partially successful solo.
But here comes yet another imitation to close the show. Exemplified by the title "Return to India"; it indeed marks a return to the album's guidelines, but not as ridiculous and irritating as the previous tracks, featuring a finale worthy of the most cinematic Rhapsody.
However, compared to the pleasant surprise of the last tracks, the obnoxiousness that oozes from the remaining songs of the bunch is overwhelming. For this reason, I believe albums like this are not deserving of any merit and do nothing but distort a reality that never enjoyed great merits, even going so far as to justify the criticisms of those who, when faced with a metal genre album, are not in favor of using classical instruments and female voices.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 India (05:17)
On!
Sailing on!
To our fate!
To India...
Above the seas with the wind we are flying high
Our wings are sails and our trail means no second try
Golden and silver the future will be
When we're at the aim
Forward we sail into the unknown
We have no fear we're sacred
We're going to where no one has gone before
Keep on til we have reached the sunset
There will be no withdrawal
We're heading for the the treasures of India
Stars show the way through the night, we don't look behind
Water supplies getting low but we're strong in mind
Power and Glory will come to us all
When we're at the aim
Once there was a vision to find
A new land behind the horizon
When we chased the sun
A whole new world was born
My dearest wishes they will be fulfilled
When we have reached our destination
Forward we sail into the unknown
We have no fear we're sacred
We're going to where no one has gone before
Keep on til we have reached the sunset
There will be no withdrawal
We're heading for the the treasures of India
02 Now & Forever (03:20)
Millions of songs all these years in my soul
And when we met I just knew they're for you
Now your voice is singing them all
Your wings at mine we will never fall
On and on
We will fly now & forever
Side to side now & forever my love
Thousands of miles through the cold stormy air
There's really nothing that I wouldn't dare
I climb the eye of the hurricane
When the winds are whispering your name
On and on
We will fly now & forever
Side to side now & forever my love
04 Fight Me (03:37)
I cannot turn away
From this obscurity
A nameless Force
Is stealing my face
Come and – try to – fight me
You will – never – break me
I know it's the final breath I'm taking, if I let you win
So I cannot be the one forgiving or I'm giving in
Now I can see you
You were just hiding
You won't betray me
Cause now I know your name
Come and – try to – fight me
You will – never – break me
I know it's the final breath I'm taking, if I let you win
So I cannot be the one forgiving or I'm giving in
07 Widescreen (04:15)
Watching it on widescreen all the time
Bringing our lives into one line
Fashion be my guide
Cold sweat - there's something on I don't know yet
Thoroughly making my mind mad, I'll jump onto this
Fast train, ruling my life on the fast lane, being a part is a vast strain
I am and I am
Watching it on widescreen all the time
Bringing our lives into one line
Fashion be my guide
Reflections of what they want us to be
Uniformed we are right what we see
A pressure I can't hide
Downfall of visions and dreams, gotta have all,
Like lemmings we rush for the roll call, deprived of all we
Stand for, united we stand as a main bore, just numbers, no names on this dead score
We are and we are
Watching it on widescreen all the time
Bringing our lives into one line
Fashion be my guide
Reflections of what they want us to be
Uniformed we are right what we see
A pressure I can't hide
08 The End of Every Story (04:54)
Do you know we reached somehow the end of every story
Welcome to the final show it's here in all its glory
All we've been, all we see was born so long ago
In times of joy and of tears, we carried on
The winds were still, did no harm to our shores
But the seed's already sewn, now the storm will come
Over and over we're downcast
Only, it's only a dark past
Do you know we reached somehow the end of every story
Welcome to the final show it's here in all its glory
You can run but all you flee is a life of sorrow
Time will tell what kind of fate will be waiting for us now
Built on sand by our hands were all of our homes
Turn around, realize this world is not our own
So we have to succumb to the call of fate
Hear it now, it leads us down to future's open gate
Falling we're falling with closed eyes
Losing now losing our old disguise
Do you know we reached somehow the end of every story
Welcome to the final show it's here in all its glory
You can run but all you flee is a life of sorrow
Time will tell what kind of fate will be waiting for us now
10 Dancer (03:50)
She walks on the moonlit snow
She's winterhearted, so you say
But you don´t see
She's a dancer on the glass
That's broken like her past
She would never flee
Fascination is her name
She is dancing in the wind
Almost dancing everything
Every moment of her life
She is taking me with her
With the music in her heart
She is breaking every ice
She is talking with the world
A far-traveled bird
Her soul´s her home
See how light are all her moves
Just follows her own rules
But she is not alone
Fascination is her name
She is dancing in the wind
Almost dancing everything
Every moment of her life
She is taking me with her
With the music in her heart
She is breaking every ice
In me
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