Customer Reviews

The Law Of One

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

 

 

To say the music on this CD is HUGE is an understatement. Great song writing and amazing performances run through every track. If you like big sounds and big production...you have to buy this CD. The vocals are beautiful and the keyboard playing is nothing short of amazing. Great songs, great players...

An excellent project that I hope some day soon will perform public,The writing compliments the vocal's sullen beauty combined with the best keyboards to be found!
A very strong release that has it's path already made.The guitars and production by Yan Leviathan have given him a new vision....and no sooner have I spoken that the CD is already selling out!

Tim Honebrink/The Root Of All Evil Radio Show / KFAI

This album features some top notch playing, no doubt about that. The keyboards do soar and put many synth players to shame. BUT... the vocals and song melodies are your classic, European power metal sound that seems to saturate the market these days. To me, the band is stellar, but when the vocalist comes in it waters the whole thing down with that high pitched, stale, Euro metal flavor. If this band had a better front man with more vocal range and ability, they would be a powerful force in the molodic, power metal market. The band gets five stars for being a talented bunch of players.. The vocalist gets zero stars for being another uneventful, high pitched cookie from the same cutter as a zillion other bands. And so for me, it comes out to be a three star effort, and that was being generous in my opinion, because the vocalist really drains a lot of energy away from these potentially great songs.

If you like artists like Within Temptation you're gonna love this album!! The instrumentals are fantastic and each song is a journey into another time and space. It envokes great emotions from sadness to triumph. It is a fantastic masterpiece of creativity!!
Thanks to Echoterra for such a FANTASTIC album!!

This exciting new band Echoterra was formed by keyboard player Jonah Weingarten (Pyramaze) and guitarist Yan Leviathan (Avian) in 2007. The vocalist on The Law Of One is Suvi Virtanen, possessing a powerful operatic voice, previously Suvi was a singer in Therion's choir. Since the release of this Echoterra's 2009 debut Suvi is no longer a member, and a new vocalist and also drummer have joined the ranks of the band. With these changes to their line-up Echoterra can now perform their material live, and also an EP is to be released this year featuring their new vocalist. I will be interested to hear the difference, as Echoterra have some tough competition in a bustling genre, with many exceptional established bands like Nightwish and others.
The grand/symphonic music of Echoterra is as expected quite keyboard heavy, fetching guitar work and requiring spirited drumming, starting with the grandeur of "Manifest Eternity" a compelling introduction for what's to follow. Keyboardist Jonah really is a considerable talent, I must say I'm a sucker for his style of playing, and it's why I like bands such as Pyramaze so much. You just have to listen to Jonah's catching work such as on "A Tear Of Her Heart" or "Say, Try, Lie, Die", and actually, two versions of this song are on The Law Of One, and I enjoyed both, my pick being the first and heavier over the orchestral take. Echoterra wouldn't be complete without the other able members, all playing their parts in making The Law Of One a worthy introduction to their material.
The Law Of One is an impressive debut, equipped with ample charming substance; many metal fans will appreciate Echoterra's symphonic power metal.

While I love the music, the production is weak and the vocalist is swimming in reverb. Tighten up the production and work on better vocals. I'm a fan of Nightwish, Within Temptation and Delain. There is a serious downgrade in quality from those bands to this one.

I'm really, really pleased with this entrant in the symphonic metal field! Great vocals, excellent guitar work, and some extremely killer keyboard work mark this release. Jonah W is a true talent on keyboards.

I suggest heading over to [...] and checking out Manifest Eternity. That 2 minute track will give you a great introduction to what this album has in store for you!

I find that I don't skip any tracks when listening to this one, but these are my standout tracks:

Manifest Eternity: Brilliant intro piece to a symphonic metal album. By the end of this piece, my mind is completely ready for some symphonic metal majesty!

The Wind Surrounds You: This song is gorgeous. Beautiful keyboards, beautiful vocals, beautiful emotions! Huge "repeat" factor on this one when I listen to it.

To Live Again: Shows off singer Suvi's voice very nicely!

Say, Try, Lie, Die: Best song on the album!!!! This one grabs me by the chest right away, then grabs me by the throat about 12 seconds in and never lets go! Bassist Brian gets to pull half of the vocal duties on this one and his voice is well suited to this material. This is one of those very rare songs where I knew upon the first listen that I would love it, and I do. In fact, I find that track 8-10 usually get short-shrift from me, because once I hit this song, it is extremely difficult for me NOT to hit the "repeat" button. This is one of my favorite songs of 2009 in the power/prog/symphonic metal genre.

Water Falls: I particularly like the guitars on this track. While I often gravitate to the keyboard-driven songs, especially when listening to symphonic metal, this is one where I prefer it guitar-driven. Also well-suited to Suvi's vocals.

Say, Try, Lie, Die (Orchestral Version): This version of my favorite track is done in orchestral style: all keyboards and no guitars, with Suvi handling all of the vocals. While I prefer the hard-hitting version, I can TOTALLY see a lot of people preferring this version. I just personally think that the lyrics lend themselves best to the heavy treatment [insert metal horns here], as beautiful as this one sounds.

Long live metal!

Seastorm