Review Summary: This album may be the archetype of the New Age genre, but the result is surprisingly interesting.
When I was a child, I had a pirate copy of the album, and oh boy, even though I was not as technical as I am today in listening music genres, this album literally blew my mind.
The album is one of the few examples of the new age genre going mainstream along with Enigma and Enya.
Era is actually a musical project by French Musician Eric Levi, and his approach to the genre was even more experimental than the classic instrumentation of New Age in general and their genre colleagues. Levi incorporates Rock and even Heavy Metal influences on the mix. As an example The album's closing Impera features a Long guitar solo at the beginning of the song which, it is a common feature in most metal bands.
The album's major hit Ameno comprises an interesting choir with an awesome guitar solo and a drum track that is as catchy as hell, and the song practically encompasses most of the elements found on the album: the guitar licks and solos, the choirs, the solo vocals, the catchy drum rhythm and even the bass is a major factor in the songs.
The surprising thing about this album is the rhythm. This album actually brokes with the concept of the classic atmospheric and relaxing New Age song driven with pianos and choirs pretending to be in a Catholic mass; especially the song Cather Rhythm which I think is the closest thing I ever heard to be a power metal song. Easily the most "metal-driven" song in the album.
I love the vocals of the album, especially the one in "Mirror", the song is so beautiful that even those who hate the songs driven by vocals would fall in love after listening to the song. A variation of the song with the classic verse-chorus-verse can be found in the second album under the name of "Misere Mani"
The only problem of this album are the lyrics. Yeah, most of the songs are sung in what sounds to be an hybrid between Latin and other ancient languages. Amazingly none of the songs in the album sung in English had the success or the relevance of songs like Ameno or Divano.
The album is a must to both the dedicated listener and the casual listener who likes music in general.
My pick-ups for the album
- After time
- Cather rhythm
- Enae Volare Mezzo
- Mirror
