XANDRIA SALOME ALBUM DRAKKAR RELEASE: MAY, 2007 REVIEW: JUNE 18, 2007

Album four from Xandria starts off promisingly with the soulful "Save My Life" that actually shows a more electronically based approach as well as Lisa Middelhauve's vast improvement as a singer. But wait... then the second track fires up and is about... being a vampire. It's titled "Vampire". It's all downhill from here with the metal tendencies of the band trying to hide behind walls of production and slick studio tricks. They use a very overdone progression to represent the orient on one tune and a very overdone sequence that has (once more just like with "Ravenheart") been done to death to transport the listener to the Persian world on the title song "Salome". This band talk about revealing a secret with their new album, I'm guessing the secret is how they've managed to be allowed four albums when one would have sufficed.

Even the story lines they're alluding to - Herodias' daughter, Ishtar's dance, the return of Tammuz from the underworld - any high school sophomore has heard of (maybe not in my country USA anymore sadly) and is just cliched attention-seeking grandstanding on top of an empty cardboard soapbox. Why not trying to put some effort into finding a new sound? This one's been DOA for years now. Who are this band's fans? Where are they? That's the secret I'd like to see revealed.

PETER MARKS