SPREAD YOUR WINGS AND FLY!

For All Beyond is the debut full length release from the Bulgarian symphonic metal band Metalwings and succeeds their 2016 EP Fallen Angel In The Hell. It’s an independent release given to me by German promoter Metalmessage. Taking influences from the likes of Sonata Arctica, Nightwish and Lacuna Coil, Metalwings take you on an epic journey filled with vigor and emotion. Thunderous guitar riffs are mixed with operatic vocals, violins, keyboards, orchestra, piano and flute. All these elements combined result in songs that will drag you into Metalwings’ world of nature, medieval fantasy and spirituality. The set of tracks on Metalwings is also pretty diverse, with songs like There’s No Time and Realm Of Dreams having a guitar-heavy and frantic pace while other tunes like When We Pray and Tujni Serza are slower and put more emphasis on piano and flute, thus giving both tracks a Medieval ballad feel. Speaking of Tujni Serza, it’s a song written entirely in the band’s native Bulgarian language. Nice to see the band paying homage to their language and culture!

Human emotion is one of the major themes in For All Beyond. Negative emotions like pain, sorrow, depression are prominently featured as well as positive vibes like love and enjoying life to the fullest. Listening to the songs makes you feel like walking through the woods, thinking about your own life questions, all while moving forward without knowing where you will eventually end up. It’s a relaxing experience in an overall beautiful album that will help relieve you from the daily stress of contemporary life. My favorite tracks For All Beyond are without doubt There’s No Time and the beautiful title track. There’s No Time is about a broken relationship, it has a hard pounding beat and catchy vocals. For All Beyond’s title track on the other hand is a more optimistic track wherein the narrator wants to regain her lost love. It starts off with a moody piano tune but as the song progresses the guitars and drums come in and gradually the entire song increases in intensity and speed, beautifully representing the narrator’s regained confidence and vigor to take back what’s rightfully hers. And that’s the primary message that Metalwings want to bring to the table, life may hit you hard, but you can always stand back up on your feet and hit back harder!

What more can I say? Metalwings’ For All Beyond is a magnificent album that I can warmly recommend to people looking for some great escapist symphonic metal entertainment. The songs are diverse, but they all maintain a consistent feel of optimism and energy. So come join me in the Realm Of Dreams and enjoy Secret Town, the second track of For All Beyond.

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My prayers were answered!

I speculated not long ago that symphonic metal was dying; some new bands and/or recent records lacked the depth that had been set by the forerunners of the genre. Although maybe I just wasn’t looking hard enough. Allow me to elaborate. I came across “For All Beyond” by Metalwings and was immediately hooked.

What I like immediately is that the opener “End of the War” is a proper song in its own right, which properly sets the tone for the record. It sets a really vivid and strong tone as well. It leads nicely into “Secret Town” which gets the ball rolling after the scene has been set. The listener will come to realise that there is a quality depth in the sound. There is plenty of melody and drama right out of the box.

Naturally, there are lots of synth melodies in play but the guitars and bass are executed well. I really like when bass isn’t abused and it is integral to the dictation of the sound. The listener will also come across and may deeply appreciate the themes of emotions and feelings, and that they’re not afraid to change the tempo and feel, they expertly split the grand climatic finale in “Immortal Metal Wings” then contrast that with the much slower and softer “When We Pray”.

The whole record comes in at virtually bang on an hour but there’s no feeling of any ‘filling’, particularly as I was enjoying it and what the songs are trying to convey, even now on the nth pass. The vocals are pleasant and definitely suit the themes. Stela stands out particularly to me in the title track with an impressive display of power. “Fallen Angel in the Hell” and an accompanying instrumental is a perfect way to end, encompassing the power and emotion. There’s even a nice guitar solo in it too.

Overall, it’s definitely a winner. I’ve happily been proven wrong and I have a lot of free time to enjoy this album even more. Symphonic metal fans will definitely enjoy it and I think the themes will also attract a lot more listeners.

Thanx a lot to Dragonforza @ Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives for the honest coverage of METALWINGS !

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➤➤➤ 👍 “… the usage of electric viola which produces a melancholic and even nostalgic dark sound gives to the band the element that makes them stand out, but that is not all … compositions are very interesting … without diverging from the forms of the Symphonic Metal sound they are very pleasant to listen to and they have the necessary freshness … comparisons that I can make … are with known bands like EPICA, KAMELOT, NIGHTWISH and even LEAVES’ EYES … METALWINGSsurely do a very good work allowing me to easily recommend this to friends of the genre.”

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This is the debut album from Bulgarian METALWINGS, a gothic/symphonic metal band lead by classical trained vocalist Stela Atanasova. If that doesn’t wet your appetite you are reading the wrong review because this is gonna be all about how great symphonic/gothic metal is. Nightwish did set something enormous ablaze with their first album. Something that has grown universal. I for one am eternally grateful for that because I just love the combination of bigger than life vocals and cool metal. METALWINGS are no different. This is beautiful metal. Throw in some Celtic influences and you got an album that should take the world by storm. I know that is has taken me by storm.

Anders Ekdahl

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Metalwings aus Bulgarien gründeten sich bereits 2010, bringen aber nach einer EP im Jahr 2016 nun ihr erstes reguläres Studio-Album raus. Sie haben sich den Symphonic Metal auf die Fahnen geschrieben. Der fünfminütige Opener „End Of The War“ beginnt mit einem atmosphärischen Intro, bevor der liebliche Gesang von Frontfrau Stele Atanasova ertönt. Lange hält sie nur die Töne, ohne richtige Worte zu singen. Dies geschieht erst nach knapp drei Minuten, wo ein leicht vertracktes Schlagzeug mit seinem Rhythmus einsetzt. Ich fühle mich hier sehr an Within Temptation  zu „The Silent Force“-Zeiten erinnert. Metalwings schaffen es, Spannung in ihren Songs aufzubauen und tun dies mit zunehmender Theatralik. Aber sie klingt dabei nicht so kitschig wie viele ihrer Szene-KollegInnen, sondern geben sich dabei auch immer düster und mystisch. Treibend und folkig mit Flöten kommt dann „Secret Town“ daher, welches mit Doublebass im Refrain punktet. „Immortal Metalwings“ beginnt ziemlich verspielt und schafft einen perfekten Spagat zwischen bretternden Metal-Riffs, seichten Pianoklängen und flächendeckender Orchestrierung. „When We Pray“ ist eine schöne Piano-Ballade. Normalerweise ist Symphonic Metal „Easy-Listening-Stuff“, geht hier rein, da raus und hält einen angenehmen Pegel, der die Musik leicht verdaulich macht. Metalwings gehen jedoch einen Schritt weiter, geben sich verspielt und leicht vertrackt, was für einen spannenden Songaufbau sorgt. „Tujni Serca“ ist als einziger Track des Albums in der bulgarischen Landessprache gehalten und sorgt so für einen Aha-Effekt und einen gewissen Exoten-Bonus. Aber Metalwings haben auch etwas gemogelt, um eine Stunde Spielzeit zu kommen. Der Titeltrack „For All Beyond“ ist – genau wie die Neuaufnahme von „Fallen Angels In The Hell“ – gleich zweimal am Start, nämlich einmal als normale Version und einmal als orchestrale Version jeweils ohne Gesang. Zudem befindet sich auch die Digital-Single „Realm Of Dreams“ aus dem Jahr 2015 hier in erneuerter Fassung. Die Orchestrierungen und die dünne, etwas leblose Produktion erinnern mich an die Italiener Skylark, mit denen man musikalisch ansonsten aber nichts gemein hat. Metalwings sind auf jeden Fall mal eine Symphonic Metal-Band, die über den üblichen Tellerrand hinausschaut. Fans von Within Temptation, Nightwish, After Forever oder Epica können hier beruhigt aufhorchen!  

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Vor fast acht Jahren gegründet haben Metalwings noch nicht viel präsentiert und kommen erst dieser Tage zum Debütalbum. Gut Ding will Weile haben – dieses Motto verfolgen die Bulgaren anscheinend, wenn es darum ging, ihr Material für For All Beyond einzuspielen. Und tatsächlich, soviel sei schon gesagt, die Classic Symphonic Metal Platte ist definitiv konkurrenzfähig! Als Kopf der Formation fungiert die Sängerin Stela Atanasova, die zusätzlich Keyboard und Viola Passagen einspielt. Ansonsten sieht die Ausrichtung ganz klar aus und geht voll auf die Delain bzw. Epica Schiene – nur setzen sie auf weniger Power und mehr andächtige Elemente.

Mit End Of The War startet die eine Stunde lange Platte mit einem halben Intro / halb Hymne, die Lust auf mehr macht. Zum Material von For All Beyond gehört zudem For All Beyond (Orchestra Version) und Fallen Angel In The Hell (Instrumental Version) zudem gibt es noch die Singleversion vom Track, der bereits vor zwei Jahren veröffentlicht wurde. Im Genre Symphonic Metal steht und fällt das Projekt bereits mit dem Gesang. Negative Beispiele gibt es da ein Dutzend, die man aufzählen könnte. Die Osteuropäerin Stela Atanasova gehört zumindest nicht zu der Gruppe, sondern macht einen ganz guten Job, der zwar noch ausbaufähig bleibt, aber trotzdem viel Potenzial mitbringt. Technisch machen die sechs Künstler ebenfalls Spaß. Traditionelle Klänge werden angehaucht und versinken in einem klassischen Muster des Symphonic Metal, wo selbst Nightwish oder Within Temptation Fans dran kommen können. So bleibt ein gesundes Grundgefühl beim Debüt übrig, das mit Immortal Metal Wings gleich noch einen krachenden Leckerbissen serviert. Der Titeltrack ist natürlich ebenfalls nicht zu verachten!

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Ho ricevuto questo EP eoni fa, con la promessa che lo avrei recensito. Markus mi aveva assicurato che questa band fosse ganza e io mi ero ripromesso che, qualora avessi avuto qualche minuto libero nella giornata, avrei parlato di loro.

Purtroppo il mio blog era partito come mia semplice valvola di sfogo che utilizzavo per dimenticare quanto stessi male fisicamente. Intriso di tonni cazzari, parlavo per lo più di cartoni animati e di cacchi miei, poi, però, iniziai con la prima recensione e… e niente, da allora ho cominciato a parlare anche di musica.

Ecco, vorrei scusarmi con gli artisti che mi contattano e mi chiedono recensioni, ma io vorrei evitare, per quanto possibile, di dare un’impronta musicale al blog, perché prevalentemente vorrei continuare ad utilizzarlo per parlare di cacchi miei, senza deragliare nell’argomento musica (che è quello che facevo in qualità di Editore su The Empty Dream, la mia testata giornalistica musicale online buonanima).

Tutto questo per dire che sì, oggi parlerò dei Metalwings e di questo loro mini album, parlerò del loro metal gotico a tinte celtiche e power/sinfoniche, ma non scenderò nei dettagli per descrivere tecnicamente i brani, perché questo è un lavoro che si dovrebbe fare su una testata giornalistica o, comunque, su un blog che si occupa prettamente di queste cose.

Band bulgara, i Metalwings cambiano più di una volta studio di registrazione per dare alla vita i loro singoli e poi questo EP che ho ascoltato non tantissime volte. E non perché non sia un bel disco, ma perché i brani riescono a far presa sul sottoscritto in maniera piuttosto immediata e poi, diciamoci la verità, ho 37 anni e di metal avrò fatto indigestione quand’era il periodo giusto. Adesso preferisco ascoltare un po’ di tutto, anche musica attempata italiana (o roba più moderna), non disdegno quasi nulla tranne, però, quando mi trovo in palestra a fare pesi: ecco, lì, in quel luogo, con la musica di merda commerciale o, peggio, techno/house/stocazz non riesco proprio ad allenarmi, mi sale la depressione e i miei muscoli si afflosciano anche loro più depressi di me. Ed è lì che mi sfondo i timpani con del buono e sano heavy metal, ma preferisco andare su musiche e artisti già noti e che mi hanno tenuto compagnia durante il periodo della mia adolescenza.

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