Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

Ah, a nice look back through the land of enchantment when modern day folklore was still in its infancy; when emerald forests and misty skies colored the canvas of a child’s imagination; where heroes and villains and kings and knights and dragons littered the landscape of a countryside still at one with natural beauty.  

Wuthering Heights is a creative Danish band that one up’s the many skillful five member wunderkinds in the realms of the Prog/Metal ring.  “To Travel Forevermore” is an intuitive adventure through the inquisitive mind, without adhering to any one particular theme as one might expect another Tolkien-like crusade through fantasyland and troll-dom.  It doesn’t happen here, but there are other scenes set though scattered across both land and sea.  

While I’m not one for eight minute instrumental jaunts, “Battle Of The Seasons” steps quickly into the mid album spotlight where there’s little time to lose before you’re ducking for cover amidst a hail of arpeggios and electric FX and nearly crashes your fairy tale nightmare before its half over!  

Their instrumentation is above the norm inasmuch as cloning guitar scales with key runs and lower the drawbridge, sound the trumpets type fanfare.  Naturally tight rhythms and multi-directional song patterns that defy the usual, slow, intermediate, fast, fade, variety breed with the occasional Celtic quest, wayward warrior ballad.  Often, the songs pick right up with all guns blazing—“The Nevershining Stones,” “Battle Of The Seasons” and “A Sinner’s Confession,” where this one, is like an unsuspected cross between classic Kansas and “Masquerade” era Running Wild, particularly in the picking.  

Such accentuated fretwork comes courtesy of Henrik Flyman who teams well with Erik Ravn’s solidity in rhythmic rhyming for a dominant guitar heavy impact that’s more in step with a, Threshold, Evergrey, or early Stratovarius type style.  Expect, then, the many similar attributes we associate with vaunted Prog/Power imports—the classically trained intermissions, virtuosic leanings and skyward vocals; But also be prepared for several welcome intrusions by way of clean acoustic breaks, piano, percussive advances, the oddly timed fill and unexpected flights of fancy and character moves, all greatly prevailed upon particularly in the bombastic four part “A Sinner’s Confession” and “See Tomorrow Shine.”  This could well be a sleeper hit for many listeners who’ll linger a second longer to separate the soundtrack-like scenescape and discover a rare dawn in Denmark.