Customer Reviews

Days of Rising Doom: Metal Opera (Bonus Dvd)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album definitely has its moments of grandeur that have not yet been duplicated by any other power-metal band. The reason being: Aina is not a band. Aina is the mind-child of four producers, each of whom has had his/her hand in the rise of epic power metal. Miro and Sasha Paeth have produced power-metal mavens Rhapsody, Kamelot. Combined with Robert Hunecke-Rizzo's multi-instrumentalist prowess and Amanda Somerville's lyrical and thematic capabilities, and you have what appears to be the boldest, most ambitious power-metal release to date.

And yet, it isn't the genre's Moby Dick or Ulysses. The tremendous hype in the press and Aina's website, the ludicrous array of contributing musicians and the album's stunning artwork and package don't truly reflect the music within. The songs are accessible and catchy (as most power-metal songs tend to be), but rarely break out of the formula into something truly memorable. Staples such as "Revelations" and "Rebellion" are fun to listen to, but lack the creative thrust that launch the top bands into stardom.

However, the album *does* have its moments. "Silver Maiden" is an all-orchestral piece, medieval and seductive. It is ethereal, idyllic, and wispy with its strings, flutes and harps all lightly layered under Michael Kiske's delicate croon. Immediately following this song is the most memorable and crushing power-metal anthem, "Flight of Torek", in which Edguy's Tobias Sammet sprints across a rapid burst of double-kick drums, fast guitars, and several changes in tempo and melody to keep the listener interested. "The Siege of Aina" carries with it an original duet of army-chants - one angelic and one demonic.

But for all its planning and crisp execution, the album doesn't really take off as one would expect. Some songs are just plain lackluster. "Son of Sorvahr" is a throw-away song, and "Oriana's Wrath", the album's supposed climax, is a real disappointment with only one memorable melody and nothing that approaches a real musical build-up.

To go one level deeper, there is little character development. Despite the fantastic setting, the only character that is colorfully illustrated is Torek, who sings in about half the songs on the album. Everyone else seems crafted to affect or taunt him.

The album has its place in any power-metal enthusiast's collection. But for those who followed the hype and expected the next Symphony of Enchanted Lands, we were disappointed. The symphony is lacking, the powerful songs aren't quite powerful enough, and the overall musical layout needs revising. A great listen at times, one that might need a couple of spins, but still lacking in a holistic sense. My word of advice to the four masterminds: stay behind the glass - produce, collaborate. Leave the songwriting to your clients.

See also: Kamelot - The Fourth Legacy, Edguy - Mandrake

The metal opera genre is still going strong, thanks to projects like these.

One should approach this product with an open mind, for all songs are not 'metal' per se. The music at times wanders into new age, Pink Floyd and even Broadway territory. Thankfully, it's well written and perfectly executed, not over the top (like the Trans-Siberian Orchestra for example) and adds to the epic/opera atmosphere. The metal itself is top-notch power metal; songs like 'The Beast Within' stick in your mind for days and weeks. Overall I would say about 60% of the music is metal.

Negatives? The DVD will have to be viewed as a throw-in because it certainly lacks the quality of the music found on the first CD. The video for 'The Beast Within' is bad, bad stuff. The 'Making of Aina' is mildly enjoyable, although I was really hoping to see Sass Jordan belting out some metal in the studio! I am sorely tempted to knock off 1 star because the higher price indicates you are paying for it. Lets say first CD rates 5 stars, the whole package rates 4.5 stars.

This will certainly not collect dust on your shelf, and I suspect it will age very well so you will likely still be enjoying it in a few decades time. Recommended.

"Days Of Rising Doom - The Metal Opera" contains 2 cd's and 1 dvd. The 3 discs all tell the story of Aina. It's a fantasy-story which reminded me a little of The Lord Of The Rings, because of some similair aspects (made-up language and world, good versus evil). Aina is a peaceful land that is ruled by a king with two sons. But both the sons (Talon and Torek) are in love with Oria, The Silver Maiden. Oria only loves Talon, who she marries. Torek is furious and leaves Aina and goes to Naschtok, where he prepares a war with Aina. This is the beginning of the story (I'm not gonna tell the whole story, it's pretty long!).
Disc one contains 15 songs that follow up to each other and so tell the story. My favourite songs are "Flight Of Torek", "The Siege Of Aina" and "Oriana's Wrath".
Disc two contains single versions and alternate versions to several songs of disc one.
The most interesting thing on the DVD was the documentary "The Making Of Aina". It showed a clear and interesting view on how they managed to make this huge metal opera.
There were a lot of people involved in this project. The actual 'creators' of Aina are Sascha Paet (producer of Epica and others), Amanda Somerville, Miro and Robert Hunecke-Rizzo.
But there many guest vocalists (one for each character in the story) such as Glen Hughes, Marco Hietala (Nightwish) and Simone Simons (Epica). There are also many guest musicians like Emppu Vuorinen (Nightwish),Jens Johansson (Stratovarius) and TM Stevens. I think it's very special that they managed to get all those people together in one project.

To my opinion, this album is one of the greatest ones I've heard the last few years and if you're into symphonic, operatic, versatile, fantasy metal you should definitely buy this record!!

Okay, so I got this album and was thinking "Man Oh man!, a metal opera!" so I popped it in and listened. The intro of piano and strings caught my attention, and after finding the lyrics to the album, I was hooked. Now this album, I admit, would not be for the super metal fans who want non-stop fast tunage.

This, if you could open your mind a little further, would proove worthy of Broadway prodution, or even a movie. Songs such as "Naschtok Is Born" and "Flight of Torek" are very well composed metal tunes. While on the Broadway/opera side of things there must be slow songs, such as "Silver Maiden" and "Lalae Amêr" (which I personally am appreciative because of the language that had to be made up for it) And a very noticable Broadway-like song , "Oriana's Wrath" and if you say it's not then you must have not heard what a Broadway show sounds like

NOTE AGAIN: this is NOT for the metal fan looking for non-stop fast paced insanity

This is more for the metal fan who can appreciate it like a good fantasy novel, except in metal opera form.

As for the music and vocals, it pretty much blew me away. Every guest in this epic has phenomenal voice, especialy Thomas Rettke, particularly in the song "Naschtok is Born". Glenn Hughes also did very well in "Talon's Last Hope". As for the music section, Robert Hunecke-Rizzo did a terrific job. And the composition of the stings is spectacular, thank you Miro!

The story and lyrics (written by Amanda Somerville) is entrancing, though also I give probs to it because of its originality. The fictional language used and the names and storyline are marvelous. And finally, a gigantic thanks to Sascha Paeth for producing this awesome piece of meatal-opera history.

All in all, I'm eagerly awaiting to hear if this is going to make it to Broadway or film. If you enjoy Broadway and are at least somewhat a power-metal fan, this would make a fabulous collection to your music library. A must buy

This is the ultimate super band of all time baby. You have here a two disc and one dvd metal opera. featuring guys and girls from bands such as Stratovarius, Dream Theater, Blackmore's Night, Helloween, Iron Maiden, Gamma Ray, Nightwish, and on and on and on and on.

The first Disc is comprised of the story of Aina \, which is left open for a sequal. It's the best, although they should have geiven Candice Night more vocal parts, she's a good singer. Disc two is like extra stuff, varius remixes and junk of disc 1, really good stuff. And the dvd consists of the 3d computer animated video for a song and one for a 15 minute epic "The Story of Aina" as well as a making of and varius pictures and discopgraphies and junk.

For this price you should buy nine and give them to your loved ones.

The Bottom Line
If you believe the hype, Aina is the greatest musical endeavor in the last ten years. With lesser expectations it's quite good

It was supposed to be a monumental achievement. An epochal event in the annals of Rock/Metal Operas or any musical endeavor. It was supposed to compare favorably with the mega hit, blockbuster rock operas of the seventies. With a cast of dozens of big name musicians and singers it was bound to succeed. If I may paraphrase the immortal words of George Tenet, it should have been "a slam dunk"

Aina is a highly touted, long awaited production. It has, as a rule, been getting very positive reviews but I think some of those reviews were based on hype and expectations. I think, based on expectations, one could fool themselves into liking something more. I'm sure You and I have probably done it.

However, before I continue, let me straighten out a misconception I may have given you. Aina is not a piece of crap. It really is a pretty good album. That's why I gave it four stars. Some of you may listen to Aina and think whats his problem and give it five stars. So therefore let me explain my train of thought.

I'm not disappointed that it's not good. I'm disappointed that it's not better, that it's not fabulous, amazing, incomparable. The fact is, it doesn't truly match up to it's ostentatious packaging.(which, admittedly is a challenge) The trouble is, when what's inside doesn't match or exceed what's outside, it seems pretentious. Does that make sense?

Conclusion

To say that this production is merely ambitious does not do it justice. However, to say it succeeds is an overstatement. It succeeds on some levels but not overall. Am I impressed? Not really. Am I disappointed? A little. Could it be worse? Of course, It's actually pretty good. Could it have been better? You bet, I said pretty good, not magnificent. It is to a great masterpiece like the movie Dragonslayer is to The Lord of The Rings

Before I review this disc, I need to make it clear that I only purchased it because I read that Michael Kiske and Tobias Sammet sang on it. These two guys are my all-time favorite singers, but I'm especially partial to Tobias Sammmet, so try to collect absolutely anything I can find that he's been involved with.
Anyway, with that being said, I simply can't get into the Aina project. Many of the prior reviews have already expressed my feelings to an extent, so I won't go into tremendous detail. Except for the singers I mentioned above, I just didn't care for any of the vocalists on this disc. Also, for me at least, none of the songs were at all memorable, especially when compared to the material in the Avantasia project.
The Aina story didn't make all that much sense to me either, and it seems as if whoever wrote the songs was trying to force the story to be told in the lyrics, and there were simply too many words to make the songs sound good; not sure if that makes sense, but I think what I'm trying to say is that none of these songs are particularly easy to sing along with.
Bottom line, this disc was a pretty big disappointment for me. I think that the singers did their best to make the songs sound good, but not even great singers can do much with wordy, easily forgetable songs.

AINA: Days of Rising Doom was everything I expected. The discs and case were in wonderful condition. It was obviously well taken care of. And why not? The music was fantastic! On my facebook page I recommended it to anyone who enjoys hard rock and/or The Lord of the Rings.

Buy the 3 disc version to see the interviews and how the album came together. Very interesting and satisfying story. Everything about this cd is beautiful. If you like power metal then here is another must have cd in my opinion. I will never stop listening to this album. All I can do is glorify this to let you know that it shines bright.

I enjoyed this disc and the songs that stand out to me are "The Siege of Aina", "The Beast Within","The Son of Sorvahr", and "Oriana's Wrath". The only thing is... Symphony of Enchanted Lands 2: The Dark Secret blows this out of the water. Don't get me wrong. The time and effort put into this had to be tremendous. There are just other bands that take the metal/opera genre to another level. I do recommend this. It is still quite good.