Far from Heaven

Axenstar is in many ways a typical turn-of-the-millennium Nordic power metal act, full of theatrical melodicism, icy atmospherics, and a melancholic touch. 'Far From Heaven' was released near the tail-end of the late 90s/early 00s power metal renaissance, and in many ways this record is emblematic of a lot of the better trends going on at the time; Axenstar positions itself somewhere between Sonata Arctica and Falconer.

I am a sucker for intro tracks that lead beautifully into the first main track, and 'The Descending' is an excellent opener. The second half of this little track is ethereal bliss, to me, even if it only lasts for about 30 seconds -- and it leads quite nicely into solid, serviceable opener 'Infernal Angel', which serves as a tidy encapsulation of Axenstar's sound, and the general thrust of this record. Singer Magnus's vocal style is probably the most striking aspect of this band; his rock-toned baritone is miles away from the typical heroic-tenor sound featured by most power metal bands. It is not only lower in tone, but also is sung with a disciplined, almost mechanically-smooth legato. This can be almost distracting at some points. The guitars are standard, solid, serviceable power metal songwriting, full of neoclassical fooling around and lots of catchy riffs and melodic complements to the vocal lines.

If you like the first five minutes of this album, there's plenty else here for your palate; if you don't, it's representative enough that you're unlikely to be missing anything special. There's much here that's more of the same as 'Infernal Angel': 'Blind Leading the Blind', 'Don't Hide Your Eyes', and 'Blackout' are all cut from the same cloth -- the latter of which has a particularly striking iciness to it; the synths in 'Blackout' are superb. 'Abandoned' is a trek through more-gothic territory and features some of the more rhythmically varied sections of the album, but, while a good, listenable track, also fails to be a superior, memorable one: it's a good song, a serviceable song, fine to listen to as it's being listened to, and then forgotten. This is a problem on much of this album: it seems to be scratching at a glass ceiling of metal glory, but just can't break through. There's a lot of potential and passion here -- but much that keeps the band from reaching the heights of the bands from whom it draws inspiration.

Nonetheless, 'Far From Heaven' has found its way onto my list of second-tier power metal album favorites. There's enough that's good here to keep me coming back, and to recommend to genre-lovers -- and my heart can't give the album lower than an 80%, since I like it enough to recommend it. But this record also shows Axenstar's limitations, and there are not enough unique musical ideas here to really sustain momentum for the full length of an album, which is predictive of their fate as a band, unable to break out of the second-tier or third-tier in which they've been stuck since the start of their career.

This album was released not too long after I first got into power metal, so it is an interesting milestone how my taste in music evolved. For some reason, this album got lost in the shuffle over the years, despite my liking it a great deal.

I thought this may end up being one of the 4th rate albums I liked back then because I didn't know any better. It's not.

Axenstar really has a knack for melody. I mean, really and truly world class. The songs flow almost like a folk song at times, in that they follow the vocals and lyrics first and foremost. This really lets the melodies shine, and frankly doesn't work with weak melodies.

Their sound is two parts: the first, the generic; keyboard-heavy Finnish power metal sound, the second, the unique; this other component of a singer that does not have the typical high register, vibrato and falsetto you normally hear in power metal, and palm muted, and strum patterns that are quite "punk" at times.

I imagine the singer's take was more or less to approach the music in a straightforward manner, rather than saying "I have to sing in a power metal style" - and it works. It's almost as if you don't want to call this power metal because the vocals change the feel of the music so dramatically. His range is more or less just a speaking pitch, with no real stylistic flair, but it somehow just works so well.

Many songs have a good melody leading into a great melody, always well accommodated by the rest of the music. Blackout and Blind Leading the Blind could just about be covers of Sonata Arctica, but with the bands own style injected into it of course. Children Forlorn is more to the heavy metal side with more of the punk feel and a badass bass intro. Don't Hide Your Eye is a mix of post-Blaze era Iron Maiden and Stratovarius.

The drumming is not overly fast, (aside from the double bass - duh, it's power metal after all) the guitar parts, with the exception of Infernal Angel aren't particularly flashy or quick. The keyboards do just enough to lay the ground work with atmosphere and remind you you're listening to power metal. Everything is pretty subdued to let the song structure, flow and vocal melodies be front and center.

As much as I'm a sucker for musicianship, musicality and complex music in general, this shows that song writing and melody trump everything. I still remember all these songs well, and picking highlights doesn't really occur easily to me, because at any given time I could say one of about five songs is the best on the album. Which shows how memorable these songs are.

Infernal Angel is the obvious choice for standout track, but I will instead say Don't Hide Your Eyes with it's fakeout of almost being a ballad than trampling you with a gallop beat riff - and the title track, with it's longer length allowing the band to weave a larger tapestry with this great song writing.

Revisiting this album after many years, I am liking this it maybe even more than I once did. Super catchy, expertly written, brilliant songs; that's what this album is.

Axenstar is growing to one of Swedens better power metal bands with this record, but they still got bands like Lost Horizon, Hammerfall and Nocturnal Rites ahead of them.

Their first record was surprisingly good, with Thomas Erikssons great song-writing and and overall good performance from the band.

Before Far From Heaven the question was if Axenstar would be able to outshine their first record. Far From Heaven really is a solid power metal album with many good tracks and above all; the sound quality is way better. What is negative about the album is the production, which is weaker than before. Pelle Saether, the producer, and Axenstar have chosen to go with a softer style. The riffs are not as hard as before and the drums are far more in the background. I find this negative as I’m a fan of hard and heavy power metal, while this is somewhat too light.

The song-writing is still excellent and the melodies are similar too the ones on Perpetual Twilight. I don’t find them too similar – absolutely not – but you can still here its Axenstar playing. Still, Perpetual Twilight had better song writing and more really good tracks. But this record has some great songs too, of course. Abandoned, Blind Leading the Blind, Children Forlorn, Death Denied. All very excellent tracks and as good as the best from Perpetual Twilight, but Far From Heaven also got weak songs. Infernal Angel is for example their worst song so far and it’s a pity it would be the opener…

So, they did not manage to do a better record than the debut, but I’m still very satisfied with Far From Heaven. A very good release with many good tracks, but just too uneven and a somewhat weak production to be a real killer.