Apoch's Metal Review - Lost Horizon: A Flame to the Ground Beneath (2012 Reissue) CD Review

Discography	Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed.
Full-Length(s):	Awakening the World (2001) • A Flame to the Ground Beneath (2003)
Single(s):	Cry of a Restless Soul (2003)

Review

Two years after Lost Horizon issued their rather poorly received debut album Awakening the World, the band entered the studio once more to release their follow-up full-length, A Flame to the Ground Beneath. Once again, they would find their home through the UK-based label Koch Records. Unfortunately, much like their debut, it was another effort that wound up falling on deaf ears from the Metal community, for whatever reason or reasons it may have been. But was this one of those albums that truly deserved to be looked over? Or, is it possible that this just suffered from poor promotion and too much of a visual gimmick, masking whatever solid material may be present?

Well right off the bat, A Flame to the Ground Beneath definitely has a better audio quality to it, though still not the greatest for its time. Musically, the album does still sound a little muffled, but compared to their previous effort it sounds dramatically clearer. The guitars don't really end up being anything too fantastic sadly, having what sounds like a weak or hollow distortion to them, as if being heard through cheaper or portable amps, but given a slightly deeper edge. This is backed up by a louder bass presence you can easily feel throughout the album that doesn't really mask the distortion, or enhance it, but really gives it a heavier sound that greatly helps the album along. Sadly these seem to be far from important in the recording from the other elements. The drum kit sounds great with crisp cymbals that are fantastic, snares that have a slight echo to their tighter sound, and a nice click to the bass kicks, all at a nice level that nothing gets drowned out, unlike the keyboards that are loud, clean, and overbearing. Half the time it seems like the keyboards are replacing the guitars except for when the solos hit and the distortion can become a little more cleaner, and obviously louder as well. The same goes with the vocals, clearly trying to be as loud as the keyboards, which actually works well considering how the music sounds. If they weren't, it would be easy for the performance to get lost in the mix, and given how good a job vocalist "Ethereal Magnanimus" did, it would honestly be a terrible shame.

After a rather long introduction that is meant to establish the personas and backstory to the members of the band with "Transdimensional Revelation," the listener is greeted with a very strong cleaner guitar distortion sound and some impressive, catchy riffs on "Pure" that show off the grander sound the band is going for. The chugging riffs are backed nicely by the bass, and within this track their faults are clearly hidden, also allowing the drums to play a little cover. The lower clean singing can be a bit hidden as well, but there's plenty of higher, louder clean singing that any "Cheese Metal" fan will simply swoon over. The song's energy and sense of importance can easily sweep over the listener from the very starts, especially with the immense bridges that go right into a truly powerful chorus that can easily move anyone who happens to hear it. That grand sensation really carries over nicely into many of the other tracks, but the problem becomes that some songs don't really find the guitar chords to have that support to them the way "Pure" did. "Lost in the Depths of Me" has a strong bass backing, but the guitars are a lot stronger here as well when not performing lead bridges or solos, and the keyboards really seem to take over a lot more, though the faults are still obvious. The faster pace to this song allows that weaker distortion to come through and actually clash a bit with the final production, leaving a very strong track to come off a bit gimp in its Power Metal war declaration, especially in the chugging passages.

But, of all the songs to really seem like glorified Heavy Metal worship, it's "Cry of a Restless Soul" that really lays on the "cheese." Right at the start, the music takes on a worship atmosphere, being more ambient than anything else while a prayer is spoken towards nature. After a good time with that, the song does finally pick up, and it's another faster paced song, but a far catchier one with the bass working along the guitars to make much of the near eight and a half-minute song sound rich and powerful. The more melodic touch to the song, brought on largely through the additional keyboards, really helps to make the track sound grand when it finally kicks in until it reaches the end. There's a decent amount of variety here, especially in the vocals, though you do expect some lyrics to be belted out in the higher pitched similar to that of "Pure" but just never get them. This aspect is performed very well regardless, and brings enough emotion and energy with it to make a strong impact on the song, as well as keep the track rather fresh, though as you reach the end you can start to get a little weary of the track simply by some of the filler that seems to push it along here and there, up to and even including the final guitar solo that, while still showing skill, feels a little unneccessary in the long run.

The final noteworthy track is the on many Lost Horizon fans will always talk about, and that is "Highlander (The One)." It has been thrown around that this track is a masterpiece, and given the faults of the album's audio, having an over twelve-minute track length can be a bit too much if it doesn't quite live up to expectations. And, really, it is a great song, though not really one to say is a masterpiece. The track offers plenty of variety throughout, and most of the time the guitars have a solid backing so that weaker distortion doesn't really pose much of a problem the entire time. The slower passages here, especially towards the end, really offer the most powerful vocal performances on the album, and really bring a more spectacular epic scale to the track than what already exists. It builds into a rather fast paced conclusion that comes out of nowhere, but suits the track well considering the slower and mid paces of the song to begin with, ending on a high note to close the track. The chords that ring out to silence also make a nice segway to the closing track "Deliverance," which finds more ambient effects filling the track up like "Transdimensional Revelation," though a lot softer, as if in the background, feeding into subtle bursts of wind as if bidding farewell to the band members as the portal closes around them in a conclusion similar to a Science Fiction film (Highlander anyone?).

2012 Reissue:

Much like with the 2012 reissue of Awakening the World, there isn't really too much of a difference between this edition and the initial pressing. The artwork seems to be the same aside the label imprint obvious, and maybe some details in the book regarding the original print and this edition. However, and I am hoping this is just a glitch in the digital promos, the song "Highlander (The One)" is just cut off at the six-minute, eleven second mark, so this is something to take under consideration when buying the album. Unfortunately my copy of this is digital, so I cannot say whether or not this will be on the final product.

But, again, if that proves to just be an error in the promotional review copy, this comes out to be more of a judgement call. The album isn't too old, and outside of the fact that you can't really buy a sealed factory edition unless you look hard, you can still pick one up used for a decent price. If you have the original, it really isn't worth picking up, but if you don't have it and want to splurge, this is still a release well worth looking into, and it's great to see this release back on the store shelves once more.

All in all, this album really tries to push an epic sound to the forefront, and in many ways the band accomplishes what they set out to do. However, it felt like the guitars were largely ignored outside of solos or louder bridges with more dynamic chords compared to the traditional chugging. The release is composed of a lot of "cheesy," Metal worship tracks, but in the end that is what you could only expect from the group. There is plenty of power and emotion present in just about every song, and there are no songs here that really leave you bored, just let down by the weaker guitar sound on various songs. Sadly, this is another gem that seems to have been greatly looked over for some reason, though it shows a band that was growing nicely and hindered this time only by a choice in the recording studio, or its limitations. Either way, A Flame to the Ground Beneath by Lost Horizon is an album Power Metal fans really should look into if they've never heard it, and with The End Records reissuing this one, it's even easier to acquire it if you don't already. Granted the original isn't too hard to find a copy of used, but the choice between that or a newly pressed, factory sealed copy is yours to make. That is, as long as "Highlander (The One)" is complete on the factory pressing and not what I have here, in which case the original is your only option!

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	Original physical review copy of this release provided by: Personal funds. 2012 Reissue digital review copy provided by: The End Records via Tell All Your Friends PR.

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