Xandria
Salomé - The Seventh Veil

An album par excellence, loaded with memorable songs that stick in your head with ease and don’t get lost in unnecessary decorative embellishments, effective for accompanying the carefree summer days in the name of the most original heavy metal. And who would have ever expected this from Xandria, always known as the worst clone of bands like Nightwish, Within Temptation, and Evanescence, with a not-so-happy past and three albums discardable for their very low value (which nonetheless achieved great success in German charts)? No one harbored the slightest hope anymore, but they, in a period of total overabundance of truly inspired "female-fronted" metal bands, managed to carve out their own space, passing the acid test and potentially placing themselves on the same commercial plane as the aforementioned colleagues.

"Salomé - The seventh veil" seems like anything but an album conceived at the drawing table (as its predecessors were): some influences are still evident, but the Teutonic combo has partly revolutionized their sound to offer their fans (and not only) something appealing and finally personal. Could the secret of this unexpected uprising lie in the production, finally returned to the band's own bosom, and specifically in the hands of guitarist Marco Heubam? The suspicions are turning more and more into a conviction: right after being greeted by the melancholic opener "Save my life", filled with Nordic spleen and in line with current female-fronted gothic productions, we are assaulted by the heavy charge of "Vampire", which, regardless of the dark themes, reveals itself as the first anthem of the album, enriched for the occasion by robust riffs and a compelling guitar solo. And if "Beware" takes us back to the times of the debut ("Kill the sun", 2003) with its rock characteristic and the carefree vibe it incessantly pours into the ether, "Emotional man" is embellished with symphonic mastery, interwoven with the usual and ecstatic vocal performance of a remarkably improved Lisa Middelhauve, who is capable of infusing a pleasant vein of perdition into the various tracks on the setlist.

The title track immediately establishes itself as the first true masterpiece in the Xandria home; the dance of the seven veils is introduced by liquid bass lines and seductive guitar arpeggios, unfolding for over six minutes through its melancholic refrains and chilling orchestral arrangements by the Babelsberg Film Orchestra, imbued with oriental magic, passing through a beautiful and extended solo. So much enchantment directly yields to the Scandinavian immediacy of "Only for the stars in your eyes", featuring the participation of Entwine's singer Mika Tauriainen, while the subsequent "Firestorm" skillfully earns the second place on the podium of the album's best tracks, condensing in just under five minutes all the characteristics of the band's sound. We find indeed the same full-bodied and driving riffs, the alluring voice of Lisa, and respectable symphonic arabesques, as well as an instrumental passage worthy of the best After Forever, suddenly broken by the entrance of a wicked growl. "A new age" plays once again at mixing sweetness and perversion, resting on beautiful piano notes and the tempered aggressiveness of the guitar, which in the bridge gives way to mystical spoken verses that launch the track once more into a velvety refrain. As usual, there is also room for a piano ballad ("The wind and the ocean"), in this case dedicated to the magic enclosed in the wind and the sea and miraculously touching despite being stuffed with clichés, while "Sisters of the light" handles with great ease arabesque cadences, mixing them with the rock vein of the guitars to construct yet another anthem track. Now the class until recently absent in Xandria's music has manifested in all its charming elegance; there's nothing left but to be swept away by this impetuous and fascinating dance, as if spellbound.

Unfortunately quite canonical are the two tracks placed at the end ("Sleeping dogs lie" and "On my way"), but, as the first great album released by our guys, "Salomé" will not fail to astonish and make all those reconsider who in the past (rightly) denigrated the Teutonic five-piece, but also to win over new followers, who will be seduced with class by this versatile oriental dance imbued with passion, mysticism, mystery, and perversion.