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[Ash]

As you may or may not be aware, I usually worship Edenbridge as if they were gods. As a result, I've been aching for this album ever since I knew it was being made, and after a long hiatus, my reviews have returned. Having reviewed (and always loved) Shine, which had most of my fave Edenbridge stuff on, I had high hopes for this, naturally.

The Grand Design marks a change in style for Sabine and her crew. The album is much darker and more haunting than Edenbridge's usual fantastical style, and the emphasis is much more on the guitar, something which is not always to the band's credit...


Terra Nova

Ugh, what an awful start to an album. For the first ten seconds, I felt like I'd fallen into a twisted rendition of the Final Fantasy VI intro. For the next fifteen I thought I'd fallen yet further into a twisted excerpt of Bohemian Rhapsody. It doesn't get much better from there for quite a while. It feels like some sort of intro track, which could've done with being separate from the rest of the song. From one minute ten, the song actually starts, and it starts in earnest. Sabine's vocals are great, and the song's action-packed and has a nice rhythm to it with good guitar work. I don't much like the backing singer chorus thing, which is trying to be a black choir...however, even with that it's a massive step up from the first minute. If I'd never heard Edenbridge before, and didn't know how good they were, that section alone could make me not want to. Thankfully, I know better. Get past that minute and you're in much better territory.

Flame of Passion

Nice guitar intro, certainly better than the intro to the last song. Lasts a tad too long, I could criticise, but when it does get going proper, Sabine's once more in familiarly gorgeous form. Great track, reminding me somewhat of their earlier song On the Verge of Infinity in style. It follws a very similar rhythm, though naturally with different lyrics. That's definitely no bad thing. Stick to what you know, eh?

Evermore

A very haunting set of lyrics and also bassline in this song. I do like the song...once more Sabine makes it. There's not a great deal in the way of highlights of the album so far. It has a good pumping and dark rhythm, and does it well, but nothing really strikes me as spellbinding in the first three songs. By no means bad, but nothing truly breathtaking at present.

The Most Beautiful Place

MUCH better. A mournful and guitar-free piano/orchestral work. Epica's Linger springs instantly to mind. Wonderfully lyricised and very much a delightful lament. That sounds like an oxymoron, but love laments have got to be done like this. It's great. Seems the album's getting better and better.

See You Fading Afar

Guitar's back here, building up into a very action packed riff. It's not overkill though, and makes a really pumping entrance. It parts like the Red Sea when Sabine begins to sing, and rightly so. You just can't fault her vocals. The guitar complements where she stresses the verse, and the sub-chorus is well sync'd. This song has a lot of reminders of some of their other past work, such as The Palace, amongst others. Great track, to be sure. Well made.

On Top of the World

A very uplifting start leads into some rather less inspiring vocals. Seems very unusual as far as their songs go. Nice chorus, but a very unusual song. Sabine's not bad, but I've heard much better from her. The way the song works is its highlight, it just feels really jolly and nice. I'd imagine this would make a good Christmas song, for some odd reason.

Taken Away

This is DEFINITELY inspired by Epica's Linger. If you've heard that, you've more or less heard where this is going. As such, it's wonderful. Mournful and haunting piano, accompanied by Sabine's voice, which simply exudes emotion. A second lament, but this album does them so well!

The Grand Design

After hearing what the intro did, here's hoping that this'll be better, given that it's 10min long. It starts off nothing like I expected, seeming most quiet and calm....but ARGH! no! The strange black choir is back! Too many people singing! Not good. Thankfully, we're thrust then into a nice guitar riff. Here's hoping the choir stays silent, as we've got some good vocal work over a smooth guitar, which just fits with the voice perfectly. Shame the choir are back. Why don't they just sing 'easy come, easy go, little high, little low' and get it over with? The song is really let down by them, but other than that it's pretty swish. From the lyrics, I think this song is actually a sister-song to On Sacred Ground, but is weird. You think it's gonna do that for awhile, but then it turns on its head completely. Goes into a weird woodwind + piano section at about four minutes, bringing about more Queen thoughts (the switching of style multiple times within a song)...this woodwind section is truly crazy. But it's just an interlude. Returns to the choir in earnest...then to a guitar-strumming bit. This song's all over the place....but you know what? For the most part, it works! Especially given the song's context, you can sort of understand where they're going with it. If they'd just let Sabine do the singing, this'd be a winner.

Empire of the Sun
This bonus track starts out utterly serenely, and then at the tenth second it continues sublimely. Just like a sunrise. In fact, it's basically a long instrumental to wind down the album, lovingly played. You can feel the love and attention that went into this. It's really such a shame the entire album couldn't have been of this quality.



I knew I was expecting too much when I hoped for a Shine rival, but this album did have a couple of letdowns in it. What was good was good, but there was nothing absolutely breathtaking. What was bad, however, really let the side down.

Better luck next time, Edenbridge. You know I still love you.