Imperia - Flames Of Eternity

The 12 songs on this album take you on an intense ride through all different kinds of human emotions. The music covers a wide range of atmospheres; there are heavy and aggressive tracks like "Fear Is An Illusion", up-tempo rockers such as "Unspoken Words" or the intense and powerful "My Guardian Angel" that almost comes with an industrial vibe, right next to the all orchestral ballad "Beauty Within" or the intimate piano song "A Crying Heart In the center of the album stands a power ballad of haunting beauty named "Invisible Tears" which might easily be one of the best Imperia tracks ever. The band is operating in unchanged line-up for almost 15 years already and you notice right away, that you are listening to a band where the musicians know each other inside out. Their ultra-tight and energetic performance lays the stage for Helena's amazing voice that covers the whole range from soft and sensitive to powerful and aggressive, dramatic or operatic, to even grunt vocals at timesThe overall tone of the new album is probably a bit more positive than on the previous albums. Writing music or lyrics is like taking snapshots of an author's/composer's life in a particular moment of their life, so the vibe changes as life changes as wellStill, Imperia have a very distinctive style and sound of their own, and when Helena sings the first note, you'll know right away which band you're listening to. The original Imperia guitarist John Stam makes a guest appearance on "Unspoken Words", and Finnish violin virtuoso Henrik Perelló contributes an amazing performance to "The Ocean" and "Invisible Tears". The beautiful artwork is, of course, coming from the capable hands of Jan Yrlund himself again. All of this makes "Flames Of Eternity" an extremely strong and intense album, that will leave no Imperia fan disappointed and will very likely win them a lot of new fans along the way. Jan Yrlund comments"The new album Flames Of Eternity turned out to be a very varied album. It has a heavy and guitar-oriented sound, but at the same time it's very melodic, operatic and has a lot of symphonic moments on it. The recording process took place in several locations across Europe. We decided to change the scenery a bit. In the past, we've always used the same studio in Germany for the recordings, but this time we travelled with our drummer Steve Wolz to Fantom Studio, located close to Tampere in Finland. A top-notch recording facility with Samu Oittinen, and his expertise on recording metal drums. The guitars were tracked in Finland and the bass by Gerry Verstreken in Belgium, while the vocals and orchestra were recorded in Germany by our long-term friend and collaborator Oliver Philipps, who also appears as a guest singer on "Beauty Within". The orchestra for "Fear Is An Illusion" was contributed by Audun Gronnestad in Norway. We are also really happy to get Jacob Hansen on board again for the mix and the mastering. He mixed our 2011 album Secret Passion, and Flames Of Eternity just asked for his magical touch