NARNIA – Narnia

Sweden’s Christian Rockers Narnia are celebrating their 20th anniversary as a band, and a self-titled full-length album is set for release to mark the moment.  Narnia has evolved (and devolved) a few times throughout their career, beginning essentially in the Neo-classical Metal subgenre, then morphing in favor of Melodic and Power Metal.  This new release is predominantly Power Metal … but more tame than what you’d hear from many German bands, less gritty than the American bands, and less technically precise than the Brazilian bands.  In other words, it’s smooth Power Metal … less aggressive, if you will.

There are no “bad” songs on this Narnia release and it’s well-produced … however, the (unfortunate) noticeable flaw with most of the tracks is that the lyrics feel as if they were “force-fit” into the music.  There isn’t that hand-in-velvet-glove seamlessness found to perfectly tie in the lyrical patterns and melodies into the musical structures and tempos, making for a good album that tends to feel cumbersome.  Perhaps the band’s desire to get their devout Christian messages across in the lyrics compromised their ability to create well-structured songs that always “make sense” from every angle.

TUNE INTO METALEXPRESSRADIO.COM at NOON & MIDNIGHT (EST) / 6:00 & 18:00 (CET) TO HEAR THE BEST TRACKS FROM THIS UPCOMING RELEASE!!!