(Symphonic Power Metal) Bride Adorned - Blessed Stillness (Japanese Ed.) - 2004, MP3, 320 kbps

When talking about symphonic metal or progressive symphonic metal or neo-classical epic metal ... or whatever, I don’t go cutting my wrists. The whole genre of “symphonic metal” is actually quite worn-out these days, being eaten from inside to outside for quite some time. But every now and then something interesting comes along and in my opinion Finland’s symphonic metal masters Bride Adorned’s debut full-length album titled BLESSED STILLNESS? has been blessed by an extra truckload of exciting and fascinating musical elements. Those elements raise this particular release up to the forefront of the above-mentioned genre(s).

I became familiar with Bride Adorned for the first time when I heard the band’s 2000 demo entitled THE GREY EMINENCE. Bride Adorned’s sound has been said to contain certain components of Rhapsody, Therion and even Yngwie Malmsteen and the more carefully you listen to them, the more you can actually hear those comparisons. Probably the Italian symphonic Power Metal ´messiahs´ Rhapsody could be considered as the nearest comparison to Bride Adorned because of their strong use of choirs (there’s LOTS of them on this release) and the progressive elements in their sound. Bride Adorned has a damn impressive sense for creating strong musical arrangements and prove to be true masters at creating pompous atmospheres. They dive for this big and massive sound, which has this strange tendency to sound ... sincere, even devout? Don’t worry though, this isn’t Christian metal.

Songs like the extremely harmonious and beautiful “Nexus Divina” and the Malmsteen–inspired “Otherwordly” with its strong choirs, atmospheres and varied tempos, show clearly what high-quality symphonic and progressive metal these guys make. I bet with this high caliber stuff we can only expect great things for Bride Adorned in the future. I would be fool if I lied to you about this.

Review written by Luxi Lahtinen for www.metal-rules.com

Tuomas Nieminen - Vocals
Jukka Hoffrén - Bass
Teemu Laitinen - Drums
Panu Kiskola - Guitars
Mikko Mustonen - Guitars
Tapio Kuosma - Keyboards