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Magica is a female fronted Heavy/Power Metal act hailing from Romania, and Dark Diary marks the band's fifth full-length effort since forming in 2002. It's hard to believe so much time has passed, especially since there has really never been much of a push in the States for this band. This is actually greatly saddening as Dark Diary is a phenomenal album that just never gets boring from start to finish thanks to hard hitting music and beautiful vocals. Can this not so known band really put out a phenomenal album that seems to skirt the borders of epic musicianship without falling into that field and still be great? It's obvious from the second that "Anywhere But Home" is a well composed metal album that plenty of hard hitting music with an almost fantastical story book female singer that compliments the music perfectly. This release runs the gambit as far as the tracks go, with songs like "Anywhere But Home" and "My Kin My Enemy" really showing off the band's abilities to bring in a Power Metal environment that is just close enough to the "epic" boundaries that it sounds great without being too over the top. On the other end of the spectrum, you have the mid-tempo to slower paced ballad-based tracks like "Wait for Me" that are simply breathtaking and have you hitting the back button on whatever device you're listening to this album on. However, this energetic feeling doesn't really last throughout the album. When you do hit "Wait For Me", the flow of the music seems to be a bit derailed, but not in a negative way. The music on the following songs seems to be slowed for the most part, such as with "On the Side of Evil" which doesn't quite have the same spark as the first four tracks on this release. While it's not something that could be considered filler material, as it's still a beautiful sounding song with a terrific duet chorus that pulls the song together, much of the song aside that chorus experience feels a little lackluster to say the least. "Used to be an Angel" is really the only track on this release that could honestly be considered a filler track. It really just doesn't do much musically for Dark Diary, coming off rather bland and forgettable. It seems that the latter half of this album likes to follow this route musically, which is a rather big let down overall. The only time that the album seems to truly pick up again is during the closing segment "Dear Diary", which is just a short ballad with the singer going on about how she feels about her diary against some impressive guitar work you expect to be played by a man in a suit at a cocktail lounge or some kind of artsy night club. Aside that, "Need" does a good job of blending both the beauty presented during "Wait For Me" with a slower paced version of the first two tracks "Anywhere But Home" and "Tonight". However, musically it's just not that strong and is only really saved, like many of these closing tracks, by the powerful vocal performance. The only song that really seems to break this statement outside of "Dear Diary" is the song "We Are Horde", a very strong track that shows the same intensity as the opening songs of the album. Aside that song, there's also "My Kin My Enemy", but that is more of an oddball track in the fact that it jumps between being a fast paced powerful song at the start and during the chorus, and having a more slower pace during the birdges and verses. While this sounds like it may not be an enjoyable experience, it's well worth giving a listen and going through some of the filler tracks near the end. Sure, Dark Diary is a fantastically composed album when it kicks in, but the rest of the release, with a few exceptions, just kind of seem a little subpar when you look at some of the material made available here. It's rather tragic when you think about it because this release has a lot of things going for it between the beautiful vocals and solid musicianship. Either way, there's still plenty of replay value in Magica's latest release to warrant some of your attention as soon as possible to it, being a safe purchase for anyone looking for a new band to discover, but further down the line you'll have your favorite songs, and those that will lose their shine and ultimately be skipped over. Luckily there's enough skill in many of those songs that it won't happen anytime shortly after that initial experience. |
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