AINA - Days Of Rising Doom

AINA
Days Of Rising Doom
Transmission Records
10/10




Of all of the ensembles to attempt a metal opera, Aina succeed like none other with “Days Of Rising Doom – The Metal Opera”, a massive collection of wonderfully arranged symphonic metal tracks that would be appealing to fans of just about any type of metal that can deal with actual singing.

The thunderous strains of “Revelations” flow perfectly into the starkly beautiful “Silver Maiden”, a cut which sounds as if it were lifted directly from a big budget film. With tremendous string arrangements and a decidedly folkish passage that is emphasized by a soaring refrain, Aina manage to manifest a tremendously dynamic effect. “Flight Of Torek” is perhaps the definitive power metal anthem, featuring passionate vocals and a torrid double bass pacing that launches this track directly into the stratosphere.

“The Siege Of Aina” is one of this record’s highlights, with its chanting choirs and relentless pace. This song’s chorus is perhaps the best on the entire album, as the story unwinds into a stunningly dramatic chorus. The breakdown in the center section of this track is simply killer, providing an impression of the massing of a dark army before launching into a blisteringly torrid guitar solo. The sting arrangements which grace this track are top notch as well and lead into a superb duet which brings this piece to coda.

The most appealing aspect of this record is the amount of thought and creativity that it took to construct a project of this scope. Packaged to appear as a book, the complete collection includes two full discs and a DVD which documents the making of the entire affair.
This album is so comprehensive that it is literally too much information to list, but rest assured, not only does this superior effort contain excellent production, songwriting and performance, but it also includes an extremely involved story which threads throughout the entire effort and a massive host of guests that include some of the most respected names in the field.

If you consider yourself to be a fan of progressive or power metal and you do not own this thrilling, fantastic achievement, you really are doing yourself a grave injustice because this enormous, well put together and produced collection is nothing less than mandatory listening.

If you own any one album in the genre at all, this should be the one.


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