The Swedish 'Magnus Karlsson' is on all fronts because the year 2020 saw the release of several albums with the association of 'Anette Olzon' and 'Russell Allen' ('Worlds Apart'), her participation in the last studio recording of 'Primal Fear', 'Metal Commando' and his latest baby with multiple guests, 'We Are the Night' and the Swedish multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer decided this time to compose a metal opera, called 'Heart Healer' in which he invited several female singers from the metal scene, each playing a character, and also surrounded himself with classical musicians allowing him to densify the whole with orchestral music. In the guest singers we find 'Adrienne Cowan' ('Seven Spires', 'Light And Shade'), 'Ailyn Gimenez' 'Sirenia', 'Her Chariot Await'), 'Anette Olzon' (ex 'Nightwish', 'The Dark Element'), 'Margarita Monet' ('Edge Of Paradise'), 'Netta Laurenne' ('Smackbound'), 'Noora Louhimo' ('Battle Beast') and 'Youmna Jreissati' ('Ostura').
With this beautiful array of guests, he therefore concocted an opera that tells us the story of 'Heart Healer', interpreted by 'Adrienne Cowan' who discovers a power to heal people by just imposition of the hands but which diminishes her more and more throughout these different heals. We are therefore embarked on a symphonic and progressive saga mixing orchestral music and metal with everything we want to find in this kind of album : epic compositions, grandiose arrangements and melodies that loop in the head and this from the first track 'Awake' which contains an imposing instrumental introduction then a symphonic sung part which alternates powerful passages and others much more restrained, 'Adrienne Cowan' giving us an admirable first performance. The whole is like this first title with effective melodies and accessible from the first listening, and parade addictive melodies with the lively duo of 'Adrienne Cowan'/'Anette Olzon' in 'Who Can Stand All Alone' , the mid-tempo 'Back To Life' which has a very beautiful chorus this time with a trio of singers, the other mid-tempo 'When the Fire Burn Out' with remarkable vocal and instrumental arrangements, the album going crescendo and offering us on the second part a beautiful vocal joust between 'Noora Louhimo' and 'Adrienne Cowan' with a new heady chorus ('Evil's Around the Corner') just like that of the following title 'Mesmerized' which highlights' Anette Olzon 'who certainly recorded the two vocal parts, then, the power ballad 'Weaker' in which 'Adrienne Cowan' moves us to tears when she understands that this gift which she possesses leads her to her loss and which prepares the fire final fireworks 'This is Not The End' (see video here) bringing together the seven singers for a melodic gem that continues to spin in our heads long after the last note has passed.
In summary, this new album from 'Magnus Karlsson' has all the ingredients of a quality metal opera, rich in beautiful melodies, grandiose in the orchestrations and, even if the choice of singers in the same range makes that we lose a little in the different characters, 'Heart Healer' is a great success that should appeal to all those who love symphonic and melodic metal with remarkable vocal performances... | |
