Skylark – Twilights of Sand (2012)

You want a good laugh? Take a look at the CD artwork and video trailer for this album. It’s beyond bad. It’s embarrassing. And it’s not the first time – so chances are it won’t be the last. That's the bad news.

The good news is that this new album is yet another musical masterpiece from one of the greatest heavy metal bands on the planet. I kid you not. The band that once upon a time was the byword for bad production and bad accents is now a legendary beast that people will write about one day. But for now it’s just me telling it like it is. So here’s my take.

Skylark quietly transformed into a female fronted outfit a couple of albums ago now. Somewhere between the last album and this one they lost Kiara (their leading lady). Not sure what happened, but since this is metal we’re talking about – it probably wasn’t nice. Anyway, enter Ashley. She’s American. And she can sing.

So with Ashley on board, the accent issues stay dead. Well sort of. Here and there the lyrics continue to be sung exactly as they’re written, even when the grammar just don’t add up. Maybe Ashley is too nice to say anything. Well I’m not. My message to the band is that if you’ve got an English speaker in the band, then for the love of God get her to do a spell and grammar check. Please.

“The Tears Of Jupiter” is a tiny little teaser of a song that kicks things off with everything you except from an Eddy Antonini masterpiece. It’s got grand piano to burn and a hook that does snatch and grab like a crim wanted in three states. And there’s probably no better introduction to Ashley as the new voice of Skylark. She picks up right where Kiara left off with a dark but powerfully crystal clear register. I like.

Track two is an unexpected cover of a catchy little theme song from a cult Japanese anime cartoon. No big deal except that it lets me bring up that it also features one of a truckload of guest singers that appear on this album. I won’t go into details, but you’ve got opera singers, rock vocalists – and even Eddy himself singing away.

“The Princess and Belzebu” is an obvious nod to the epic story Eddy has told over the years. And in keeping with that tradition, you get a speed metal rush of melody and neoclassical breaks that would break a lesser band. And things have only just started. “She” and “Love Song” ensure the headbanging doesn’t let up even when the words on the page look a little soft. Look closer. Eddy doesn’t write soft.

If the album openers are a speed metal brush with symphonics, then the middle tracks are a symphonic brush with speed. That means the canvas just got bigger. Even when the songs aren’t long, the delivery is bigger and the melodies more epic. That’s how a song called “Tears” rips the heart out of what could have been a ballad to carve a hailstorm of hurt out of a double kick explosion of piano and shredding.

For a minute there, “Lions Are The World” seems like an almost pointless make over of a song they did well enough a few albums back. And then the last 3 minutes of the song happens and you realize this is what it was always meant to sound like. The new arrangement is terrifyingly grand. Think lots of voices. Think instruments at war. And then think bolting through a minefield with a blindfold on.

“The Wings Of The Typhoon” and “Mystery Of The Night” turn up towards the end of the album – and you really have to feel sorry for new singer Ashley and long time guitarist Romani. Both chip in with a song each, but neither ever really stood a chance against the crushing melodic genius of Antonini. In the case of “Mystery Of The Night”, this one song alone is as good as the whole album. Which is saying something when chances are this is the album of the year for 2012. That’s right, I’m saying that with ten months to go. It’s that good.