Review of the Album "the Fall of an Empire" by French Power Metal Band Fairyland

French power metal band Fairyland released their 2006 album called “The Fall of an Empire” with vocalist Max Leclercq and it is a very good one as well. The first song in the album is a very short yet beautiful instrumental song called Endgame. But this one is not only symphonic, it also sounds like a song out of an awesome role-playing video game such as one out of the Final Fantasy series. However, the title of this first song is misleading because the song implies the beginning of something pretty spectacular instead of the end of something.

The title track starts out in the style of Italian band Rhapsody of Fire but trust me, these guys are good! Max is not as good as Fabio Lione but his vocal range is good enough for this band. It is better to strive to be a good fit as opposed to being perfect. This concept can also be applied to the music industry. There is a battle to free the kingdom of Osyrhia. This is the kingdom that was part of the title of the band’s debut album. The soldiers are asking for the help of the Gods to free this kingdom.

The next song called Lost in the Dark Lands is similar to Dark Moor (yes I’m making that Dark Moor reference again) but you can hear it in the riffs and keyboard orchestration. More symphonic play follows and I even notice a Dreams of Sanity influence in this song as well. The album then goes into another short instrumental called Slaves Forlorn. There is no way that a human could be happy in the objective sense if they are a slave. Of course they would feel forlorn.

Once again, Fairyland uses a concept styled album in terms of the lyrics to describe a journey that soldiers of a kingdom go through. They go through long distances by ship, they fight against forces that invade their lands. Even if it might seem that they might succumb to the adversaries that they battle against, at the end, they remain victorious. There are times when these brave soldiers are required to fight until the end of their days to save their kingdom from destruction. The Roman Empire however was not so fortunate. Eldanie Uelle is a song about someone who once lived in a cold desert that they could call their home. However, darkness and fear came upon this land making it very difficult to live there. If there is one weakness about Fairyland, they succumb to the same habit of having only fantasy based lyrics instead of having lyrical themes that have more to do with real life instead.

Clanner of the Light is about a soldier that can finally celebrate because the light of victory will shine on him. He has broken his curse, he is a free man and he can be elated because he is strong once again. Then we have another short instrumental song called “To the Havenrod.” The Walls of Laemnil have a fast Stratovarius influence and then the song gets softer for a brief moment as the acoustic guitar is influenced by Swedish guitarist Yngwie J. Malmsteen. It may seem that Fairyland is just a generic power metal band. If you give them a chance, you are sure to like them enough to move past listening to the traditional and more popular power metal bands. This 9^th song has a part that is influenced by Piece of Mind era Iron Maiden. Anmorkenta is a song that is about doing what you can to take down your enemies, break out from your bondage and free the empire. Once we get to the song “The Story Remains,” the soldiers can truly celebrate knowing that their kingdom is now safe. They have gone through so many situations, they have incurred heavy losses and lost so many friends but they are now free. As history has shown us, freedom does not come without a price.

Overall, The Fall of an Empire is a good album but the repetitive nature of the lyrical themes and the thundering power metal riffs are a bit too average to make this an elite album. For those of you that want to hear a power metal band from a country not named Germany or Italy that is good enough, Fairyland is a good choice.